Twelve investment zones, each backed by £80m, will be announced tomorrow as part of the effort to boost local growth and level up left behind areas.
In tomorrow’s spring budget, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is expected to confirm plans to start discussion with places to host the new investment zones.
Eight places in England have already been shortlisted to host and the Government expects to agree plans with local partners by the end of the year.
Each investment zone will be clustered around a research institution, such as a university, and will be tasked with driving growth in technology, the creative industries, life sciences, advanced manufacturing and the green sector.
‘True levelling up must be about local wealth creation and local decision-making to unblock obstacles to regeneration,’ said Mr Hunt.
‘From unleashing opportunity through new Investment Zones, to a new approach to accelerating R&D in city regions, we are delivering on our key priority to supercharge growth across the country.’
Each zone will be backed by £80m, which will go towards tax relief, improving skills, providing specialist business support, improving the planning system, or for local infrastructure.
The Chancellor is also expected to provide investment for the roll out of Levelling up Partnerships across England. These will see local councils, MPs business and civic leaders work together to identify cross-Government interventions to unblock obstacles to regeneration.
Levelling up secretary Michael Gove said: ‘Levelling up means backing local growth across the UK, driving innovation to attract investment and putting power into the hands of local communities so they can reach their full potential. Our new investment zones and Levelling Up Partnerships will deliver more jobs, better services and more opportunities for local people.’
Glasgow, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands are also set to benefit from £100m of investment in 26 transformative R&D projects.
Chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership Henri Murison welcomed the announcement of the planned investment zones.
‘This is a marked improvement on the investment zone policy, one which recognises the latent potential in these regions and gives devolved powers more ownership over their future destiny,’ he said.
‘While we’re looking forward to seeing more details on Wednesday, by avoiding a bidding-style competition and going straight to combined authorities, the government has avoided repeating previous mistakes and I have every confidence that this will result in strong proposals being brought forward.’
The eight places shortlisted to host investment zones are covered by the following:
• The proposed East Midlands Mayoral Combined County Authority
• Greater Manchester Mayoral Combined Authority
• Liverpool City Region Mayoral Combined Authority
• The proposed North East Mayoral Combined Authority
• South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority
• Tees Valley Mayoral Combined Authority
• West Midlands Mayoral Combined Authority
• West Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority
