The latest news from the UK government is good for insurers and brokers, who have a great opportunity to offer cover on the project builds, conversion of old shops and offices into new social housing schemes, green window dressing like LTNs, cycle lanes, recharging points for e-scooters/bikes or EVs, plus the installation of population monitoring tech, like sound, temperature and monoxide sensors and the security CCTV systems needed to track and monitor people.
Insurance brands like Legal & General are already well advanced with social housing schemes and the opportunuity is there for big names to build their own `model villages’ within or close to social housing projects, where wealthier, older and vulnerable residents can live in more secure areas with electric gates, video entryphones and night time security patrols. The range of data-based insurance products that can be sold to Councils and other public sector bodies as inner city areas are transformed is immense. Here’s the word from the UK govt;
Towns and cities across the country will be transformed thanks to a radical new regeneration programme that will breathe fresh life into disadvantaged communities.
Under plans set out in the Levelling Up White Paper, due to be published next week, derelict sites in towns and city centres will be transformed creating new homes, jobs and beautiful new communities across England.
Wolverhampton and Sheffield will be the first of 20 places that will be supported by government to deliver ambitious regeneration projects that will boost local communities and create urban areas people will be proud to live and work in.
In Wolverhampton, local leaders are being given the tools that will catalyse the revival of the city and the wider Wolverhampton to Walsall corridor, building on the government’s £20 million Levelling Up Fund investment and the new DLUHC headquarters in the city centre.
RAIL PROJECT
In Sheffield, new regeneration opportunities will capitalise on the government’s £37 million Levelling Up Fund and the upcoming Integrated Rail Plan electrification and upgrades which will cut journey times between Sheffield and London to just 87 minutes.
The 20 areas will be prioritised within the new £1.5 billion Brownfield Fund. In addition, to kickstart regeneration efforts in these regions, and as part of a wider package of brownfield funding worth £120 million, £28 million will be allocated to the West Midlands Combined Authority and £13 million for the South Yorkshire Combined Authority, to fund the projects most needed to support local levelling up ambitions.
EMPTY SHOPS AND OFFICES IDEAL FOR SOCIAL HOUSING
The regeneration programme will be spearheaded by the government’s housing delivery agency Homes England, which will be refocused and tasked to support the Levelling Up agenda. It will use its extensive powers and expertise to help local leaders deliver the regeneration of large areas of towns and cities, as they adapt to economic trends like the rise of online shopping.
The UK government will also welcome working in continued partnership with the devolved administrations to explore how to best support places across the UK to reach their full potential.
Homes England will partner with local leaders, the private sector and community groups to turbocharge regeneration and deliver new housing, health and education and leisure facilities, roads and railways.
Local authorities will be helped to ensure that the record government investment in infrastructure worth over £96 billion is used to its full potential. This includes £12 billion in affordable housing, the £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund and a £2.6 billion Shared Prosperity Fund as well as access to DLHUC’s £1.5 billion Brownfield and Land Fund.
The 20 areas will benefit from developments combining housing, leisure, and business in sustainable, walkable, beautiful new neighbourhoods.
Levelling Up Secretary Rt Hon Michael Gove MP said:
We are on a mission to regenerate the nation, transforming derelict areas in our towns and cities into thriving places people are proud to live and work in.
We are refocusing Homes England and empowering local leaders to support levelling up, delivering Kings Cross style transformational regeneration projects across the country – starting in Wolverhampton and Sheffield.
This huge investment in infrastructure and regeneration will spread opportunity more evenly and help to reverse the geographical inequalities which still exist in the UK.
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