Legal & General (L&G) has committed to invest £4bn (€4.8bn) in development opportunities across the UK’s West Midlands region.
The financial services and asset management company said it intends to invest in regeneration, housing and levelling up in the county as part of a new seven-year investment partnership with the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).
The agreement will also support the region’s target to deliver 215,000 new homes by 2031. The first scheme for the partnership will be The Junction, a brownfield site in Oldbury. The development will deliver 234 energy-efficient new homes of which nearly 50% will be for affordable housing under the WMCA’s local definition.
L&G has financed over £30bn of regeneration in UK towns and cities outside London and has already invested over £2bn in the WMCA’s region, including the £210m Birmingham Health Innovation Campus and multiple housing projects.
Nigel Wilson, Legal & General’s CEO, said: “The West Midlands’ economic plan, resources and skills make it an attractive destination for trade and investment from across the world; our role in this is to put UK funds including pension savings to work here so UK savers benefit from UK prosperity.”
Andy Street, the mayor of the West Midlands and chair of the WMCA, said: “The unveiling of this £4bn partnership agreement with L&G is a prime example of how the West Midlands is getting on and delivering levelling up.
“This major investment will help regenerate long-neglected areas across the West Midlands, provide affordable homes in the communities where the need is most felt, and supercharge economic growth in the years ahead.”
WMCA’s agreement with L&G is in line with the region’s investment strategy and builds on similar partnership agreements the combined authority has signed since 2018 with organisations such as housebuilders Lovell and St Modwen.
Councillor Mike Bird, WMCA portfolio holder for housing and land and leader of Walsall Council, said: “The level of investment that L&G has set out will be an incredible shot in the arm for the West Midlands as we continue our recovery, helping to bring sustainable economic growth that benefits all our communities and supports our ambition to be a net-zero region by 2041.”
Legal & General’s director of levelling up, John Godfrey, said towns, cities and regions across the UK can do much, much better – this is the essence of the UK government’s levelling up agenda.
“This framework agreement with the West Midlands enables political will to combine with financial resource so policy intentions become deliverable realities.
“We fully expect this to be an exemplar of what can be achieved with the right mix of devolution and determination.”
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