Iain Watson, lead director for local authorities at the National Wealth Fund, on how councils’ regeneration and growth plans can be turned into investable projects.
Across the UK, cities and towns are pursuing significant regeneration and growth opportunities. Many local and regional authorities can point to credible plans, strong local backing, and a clear understanding of the investments needed to support long-term economic growth. So, the ambition is there, but the challenge is turning those plans into investable projects.
Large place-based schemes often carry risks that conventional markets are reluctant to take on, whether that’s site remediation and infrastructure costs, uncertain demand, long delivery timelines or investor perceptions of higher-risk. This can leave many projects stranded between vision and delivery.
This is the space that the National Wealth Fund is occupying. We don’t want to be viewed simply as another source of public finance, but rather as a potential bridge between local economic strategies and the investment discipline required to deliver them.
By working alongside places to shape and develop investible propositions to then share risk, crowd in private capital and help establish market confidence, the Fund can unlock commercially sustainable investment that might not otherwise happen.
Our Regional Project Accelerator (RPA) is our delivery mechanism for supporting local government. Through it we focus our advisory and wider investment expertise on the places and projects with the greatest potential.
What makes it distinctive is that, alongside our established financing offer, the RPA model enables the National Wealth Fund to engage earlier in project lifecycles to help our clients shape, structure and de-risk opportunities so they are investable and are delivered.
Place-based regeneration is an economic outcome delivered through a combination of investment and interventions that cut across sectors. We understand that not every regeneration scheme needs the same form of intervention.
By taking a programme-level view of a place’s opportunities and constraints, the RPA enables us to develop integrated solutions, reflecting what it means to be a place-based investor.
Strategic partnerships are one element of this approach. Under these we embed our experts to give local leaders access to investment, commercial, and financial advice and guidance as they build pipelines in areas such as regeneration, transport and clean energy infrastructure. The Fund has now expanded the model to eight mayoral and regional authorities, including the recently announced partnerships with South Yorkshire, Liverpool City Region, the North East and Cardiff Capital Region.
Structured low-cost flexible lending direct to authorities is another useful tool particularly where local authorities face high upfront costs that will unlock wider development. The Fund has already lent more than £1bn to authorities across the UK and has a further £3bn available for projects aligned with government priorities and local growth ambitions.
The value of this model will ultimately depend on whether it helps authorities convert broad strategies into deliverable schemes: projects with clear costs, credible payback mechanisms, workable delivery structures and realistic risk-sharing. The accompanying advisory support for regionally significant projects may be less eye-catching than announcing new funding, but it is often the most critical component.
At its heart, the RPA is about turning promising projects into investable opportunities and ultimately projects that deliver for local people, communities and businesses.
Announced just last week, our support for Granton Waterfront provides a compelling example of that in action. For years the 140-hectare brownfield site has remained unused, characterised by contaminated land, redundant industrial buildings and ageing infrastructure.
The City of Edinburgh Council is utilising that land to create a new coastal district, including 3,500 homes, affordable housing, commercial and cultural space, green infrastructure and improved transport links.
The challenge is familiar: the enabling works that make development possible are also the works that private developers are least likely to fund in isolation. A £38.4m loan from the National Wealth Fund, alongside Scottish Government backing, is supporting remediation, demolition and the installation of road and utility infrastructure.
The expectation is that this will help mobilise around £160m of additional private investment into the first phase, delivering 847 low-carbon homes, including 214 social homes, a primary school and space for 14 businesses.
For the National Wealth Fund, Granton Waterfront is not simply a development project, it is an example of how place-based investment can help turn local ambition into investable opportunity, creating the foundations for growth, attracting private capital and delivering lasting economic and social benefits for local communities.
As local growth plans take shape across the UK, the need for this kind of disciplined partnership will grow, bringing together public and private investment that strengthens local economies and supports national growth objectives. Success will depend on strong partnerships, long-term commitment and investment approaches that reflect the distinct needs of each place.
