Chancellor showcases £24bn of Northern Powerhouse investment opportunities in China

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, is definitely making the Northern powerhouse a top priority after he revealed a portfolio of investment opportunities worth up to £24bn in the North of England at an event in Chengdu with senior Chinese investor.

Speaking in the city of Chengdu, the Chancellor showcased a wide range of opportunities for Chinese investment into the Northern Powerhouse as the UK and China enter a new era of economic cooperation.

While delivering the new Northern Pitchbook in Chengdu, the Chancellor was joined by many of Britain’ Northern leaders, who believe a new wave of transformational Chinese investment can revolutionise Northern infrastructure.

Accompanying the Chancellor was civic leaders from the North including Leader of Cheshire East Council, Michael Jones, Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, Leader of Sheffield City Council, Julie Dore, Leader of Leeds City Council, Judith Blake, Leader of Manchester City Council, Sir Richard Leese, Leader of Trafford Council, Sean Anstee, and Leader of Newcastle City Council, Nick Forbes.

Chengdu was also the suitable setting for this major announcement as the city, which is part of the Chongqing-Chengdu mega city cluster, is an example of a region pooling its strengths successfully to ensure the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Key projects for which investment is sought include:

• Manchester Place: an opportunity to deliver three new zones of more than 10,000 homes with a combined value of over £3bn
• Sheffield Retail Quarter: working with Sheffield City Council to create new city centre homes and centrally located offices
• South Bank, Leeds: an exciting new regeneration scheme covering more than 130 hectares in the city centre

The Chancellor also announced:

• potentially doubling Enterprise Zones across the North
• commissioning a new government report looking at existing links between UK and Chinese cities to help us better understand how we can attract more trade with China
• a commitment to reinvigorate partnerships between Northern and Chinese cities, including Sheffield’s Sister City agreement with Chengdu, which has fostered significant business, civic and cultural links since 2010
• the secondment of staff from the China Rail Construction Corporation, the world’s largest railway company, to Mott MacDonald, the UK based management, engineering and development consultancy, in Manchester
• the findings of a city-clusters research project based on the Chongqing-Chengdu cluster and the Northern Powerhouse
• a new service, established by Lancaster University, to bring together UK and Chinese universities, researchers and businesses to take research to commercialisation
• a new joint PhD programme to teach the next generation of Chinese Radio Astronomers at the Square Kilometre Array headquarters at Jodrell Bank
• a new offer on the Chevening Scholarship Programme to those in the Northern Powerhouse who wish to strengthen ties with Chinese students. Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and York universities (the ‘N8’) have all expressed an interest so far

Chancellor George Osborne said: “As we continue to work more closely with China, we have an unprecedented opportunity to secure significant investment into some of our most ambitious projects across our Northern Powerhouse.

“From Liverpool to Newcastle, we are opening up our doors to investment that will not only help us to grow and create jobs, but will allow us to build infrastructure to rival any region in the world.

“The North of England is already a magnet for foreign investment into the country and we’ve seen with announcements from Nissan and Hitachi into the North East recently highlighting how perfectly poised our Northern Powerhouse is to attract the eye of global companies.”

Judith Blake, Leader of Leeds City Council, added: “Visiting China with other Council leaders from across the North has enabled us to build on our existing strong relations with Leeds’ partner city of Hangzhou and to meet potential new partners for trade and investment.

“Bringing investment into our major regeneration and transport schemes across the North will deliver a long overdue boost to the economy providing many much needed job opportunities.”

Julie Dore, Leader of Sheffield City Council, also commented: “Connecting up the centres of our major cities has to be a priority.

“And the opportunity for Chinese investment to help deliver our plans for new infrastructure must be seen as a basis for faster economic growth.”

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