Osborne sets out £24bn of investments in “Northern Pitchbook”

25 Sep 15
Chancellor George Osborne and seven council leaders have set out £24bn worth of investment opportunities across the North of England to Chinese investors.

Leaders and elected mayors present at the event in Chengdu were Michael Jones (Cheshire East), Joe Anderson (Liverpool), Julie Dore (Sheffield), Judith Blake (Leeds), Sir Richard Leese, (Manchester), Sean Anstee (Trafford) and Nick Forbes (Newcastle).

Infrastructure and regeneration projects set out to investors included the Atlantic Gateway project to improve connections between the Port of Liverpool and Manchester, and the Science Central development in the heart of Newcastle.

These projects formed part of the “Northern Pitchbook” of investment opportunities set out today.

Leese said: “The involvement of Beijing construction and engineering group at Airport City Manchester, and in a major development in the city centre, shows that there is an open door for Chinese business in the north.”

Other projects set out included the £3bn Manchester Place, three developments zones for more than 10,000 homes; the proposed city centre Sheffield Retail Quarter; and the 130 hectares South Bank, Leeds, some 300,000 square metres of land around the planned HS2 station.

Osborne said he would consider doubling the scale of northern enterprise zones to help catalyse investment as part of efforts to foster closer partnerships between UK and Chinese local authorities.

He said: “As we continue to work more closely with China, we have an unprecedented opportunity to secure significant investment into some of our most ambitious projects across our Northern Powerhouse.

“From Liverpool to Newcastle, we are opening up our doors to investment that will not only help us to grow and create jobs, but will allow us to build infrastructure to rival any region in the world.”

The Chengdu visit followed stops by Osborne in Beijing, Shanghai and Xinjiang as part of the trip.

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