A consortium led by Aviva’s Igloo Regeneration fund has been selected to manage Merseyside’s share of the Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas (Jessica) European funding stream.
The Igloo Consortium – which also comprises GVA Grimley and Royal Bank of Canada – has been selected as the preferred bidder to run the Northwest Urban Investment Fund (Jessica) Merseyside.
The fund will start with £30m in public money allocated from the North West’s share of the European Regional Development Fund, developed by The Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and the European Investment Bank (EIB).
The consortium has the support of the Liverpool city region local authorities which have collectively agreed to provide match funding to the Merseyside Urban Development Fund to secure the European cash.
Leader of Wirral council, Cllr Jeff Green said: “Jessica will provide the Liverpool city region with a sustainable delivery model for investing European funds in a longer programme of regeneration.
“The Fund is very much in line with the coalition government’s strategy for economic growth as we’ve undertaken to work with the private sector to create an investment fund for the property market at a time when it is difficult to gain appropriate finance.”
Liverpool city council Leader, Joe Anderson added: “The appointment of Igloo Consortium is a hugely important step forward. It will help bring in vital investment and enable us to drive forward regeneration throughout the city region.”
Iain Jenkinson, investment agent for the Consortium and director of GVA Grimley, said: “The Consortium is of the view that the Merseyside Urban Development Fund can achieve attractive commercial returns by taking a different view on the investment of public and private capital and in so doing assist the local partners and the emerging Local Enterprise Partnership to deliver a shared vision for the city region.
“We intend to start inviting proposals for investments shortly and are working towards the Merseyside Fund being up and running in the New Year”.
daniel.cunningham@estatesgazette.com
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