The Chancellor and the Housing Secretary have backed plans for the country’s fastest-growing regional economy to soon become home to its first Mayoral Development Zone, covering the West of England’s emerging new town, Brabazon, and the West Innovation Arc in South Gloucestershire and north Bristol.
Helen Godwin, Mayor of the West of England, set out the plans during a busy few days banging the drum for the region with business leaders with a new £17 billion investment prospectus.
Weeks after the English Devolution & Community Empowerment Act became law, the Mayor restated her determination to make the most of available powers to deliver for the West of England to grow the economy and help tackle the housing crisis.
This announcement is another major signal of intent to take on a greater role in development.
It follows the Mayor securing the region’s first ever funding from the national Brownfield Housing Fund, with £45 million set to support the delivery of some 1,500 homes.
At the UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum, a major investment conference in Leeds, the Mayor confirmed her intention to establish the region’s first MDZ – indicating the scale of the opportunity to build more homes and create more jobs, with the right infrastructure and services alongside new homes.
With the £50 million Bristol Brabazon railway station set to open this autumn, the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority is already investing to make the region’s emerging new town one of the best connected in the country.
Bristol Parkway, a mainline station with direct connections to London, already calls the zone home while plans continue to progress for another station at Henbury.
Mayoral Development Zones are non-statutory designations made by a Mayor to focus effort on a priority regeneration area, providing the vision, oversight, direction and enablers to unlock housing and economic growth delivery, and to leverage in inward investment.
The MDZ underpins a direction of travel towards establishing a statutory Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC) for the Brabazon and West Innovation Arc new town, with the details of any MDC to be developed through significant local and political engagement.
The mayor said: “It’s time to make the most of devolution and more quickly deliver the right homes in the right places, to help tackle the housing crisis. Our region’s first Mayoral Development Zone designation will be a major moment in making that vision a reality, and realising our enormous and exciting further potential as a place.
“Brabazon and the West Innovation Arc is already the fastest-growing part of the country’s fastest-growing regional economy, something we’ve been showcasing this week with investors.
“We have so much to be proud of across the area shortlisted to become one of the government’s new towns, with our new Bristol Brabazon train station opening later this year ahead of the new Aviva Arena.
“Working together, this part of the West of England – with the right transport investment to connect the Science Park, Bristol Parkway station, and Brabazon – can deliver 40,000 new homes and the same number of new jobs over the longer-term.”
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said: “For too long the West of England has been denied investment and had its potential held back.
“That’s why alongside Mayor Helen Godwin, we’re backing a new Mayoral Development Zone, meaning new homes and better transport links, boosting the region’s economy and giving the West of England an ambitious vision for the future.
“In a changing world this government has the right economic plan: stability, investment and reform to build a stronger more secure economy.”
