The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Greg Clark)
Following the successful completion of the first wave of city deals in July 2012 with the “core cities”, the Government committed to work with a further 20 cities and their wider areas to negotiate a second wave of city deals in October 2012.
These cities—the next 14 largest cities and the six cities with the highest population growth—are in the process of negotiating the devolution of specific powers, resources and responsibilities required to deliver locally-determined economic priorities.
Over recent months I have been in negotiation with Preston city council, South Ribble borough council, Lancashire county council and the Lancashire local enterprise partnership and I am pleased to inform the House that the following proposals from Preston, South Ribble and Lancashire will take effect as the Preston, South Ribble and Lancashire city deal, the first of the second wave of city deals.
The Preston, South Ribble and Lancashire city deal will help to ensure that the city deal area continues to grow by addressing strategic transport infrastructure and development challenges to deliver new jobs and housing across the city deal area.
Over a 10-year period the local enterprise partnership assesses that the deal will support:
More than 20,000 net new private sector jobs, including 5,000 in the Lancashire enterprise zone;
17,420 new homes; and
£2.3 billion in leveraged commercial investment.
The key proposal of the city deal is:
The City Deal Infrastructure Delivery Programme
The city deal infrastructure delivery programme will deliver the critical infrastructure required to enable the full development of significant housing and commercial development schemes. This includes four major new roads, a motorway junction, the preparatory works for a new Ribble crossing bridge and the necessary local community infrastructure, such as new schools, health facilities, open spaces and district centre improvements required to support the scale of such ambitious development.
To achieve this and as a result of significant local investment, the Government have agreed to:
10-Year Transport Majors Allocation—Following prioritisation of transport projects by Transport for Lancashire (TfL) the Government will give TfL a six-year confirmed allocation and a four-year indicative allocation confirming the ten-year investment profile.
Stewardship Board—The homes and communities agency will also invest in the deal through the creation of a city deal stewardship board. The city deal stewardship board will be responsible for guiding the sale of assets belonging to the HCA and local partners for inclusion within an infrastructure delivery programme. Government will transfer into the infrastructure delivery programme the proceeds from the sale of assets placed in the stewardship board and allow the infrastructure delivery programme to retain any uplift in HCA land values over and above the book value of £50.75 million, up to a maximum of £37 million.
The City Deal Investment Fund
The Lancashire county pension fund’s agreement to allocate £100 million for investment in commercial schemes in the city deal area is a core city deal offer. The Lancashire pension fund committee has agreed to approve a new local allocation of £150 million for Lancashire—approximately 3% of the £5 billion fund—to be funded through a re-allocation of existing global equity allocation. This allocation is targeted at the acquisition of real income generating assets in Lancashire, with a target of £100 million within the city deal area and £50 million across the rest of Lancashire.