By Richard Johnstone | 14 October 2013
The Greater Manchester Pension Fund is to be one of the investors in an £800m commercial development at Manchester Airport, Chancellor George Osborne has announced.
Osborne revealed yesterday that preferred bidders had been appointed to the Airport City scheme, which will construct a mix of offices, hotels, advanced manufacturing sites and warehousing.
Other members of the joint venture team include the Beijing Construction Engineering Group, and Osborne announced the team to both fund and construct the scheme on a visit to China.
Airport City will be located in the Enterprise Zone surrounding the airport, and is expected the largest regeneration schemes in the UK since the development of the Olympic Park in London. It is hoped to create more than 16,000 jobs.
Osborne welcomed the UK-China joint venture, which he said built upon existing Chinese involvement in British infrastructure. Both Thames Water and airport operator Heathrow have already received Chinese investment.
‘I am delighted to announce on the first day of my visit to China that joint British-Chinese partners have won the contract to develop Manchester’s Airport City,’ he said.
‘I am determined that Britain does not repeat the mistakes of past that saw investment and growth only concentrated in the City of London, important as it is, but instead make sure investment from places like China flows to all parts of country.’
The breakdown in the funding to be provided by the joint venture members, which also includes construction firm Carillion, has not yet been revealed.
Charlie Cornish, chief executive of the Manchester Airport Group, said GMPF’s inclusion showed the development was ‘investing in the future of the northwest’.
GMPF, which is the pension scheme for ten local authorities, added that the development would help boost economic growth across the region.
Chair Kieran Quinn said: ‘The Greater Manchester Pension Fund is delighted to be a partner in the Airport City project. This innovative development will attract international businesses to locate to the region and support economic growth in Manchester and the wider northwest.’