Chancellor announces £1.7bn investment in Northern cities to speed up regeneration

Final allocations for the housing fund will be based on the readiness of development pipelines.

The government hopes this new investment will give mayors “the cash and tools to bulldoze through roadblocks holding up big city-centre projects and large-scale regeneration schemes”.

It will aim to drive forward brownfield development in cities across the North, including in Leeds South Bank, Liverpool Central, Manchester Victoria North, Newcastle and Gateshead Quays, and Sheffield City Centre.

The investment is based on a “just enough” public funding model whereby the money can unlock “much larger sums from private investors”.

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram both attended the MIPIM property conference last week in a bid to bring in more investment to their areas.

Ms Reeves said: “I want every part of Britain to do well. That’s why we’re going for growth all across the country, not just in a few places, because I want everyone to be able to succeed no matter what their parents do, where they grow up, or where they choose to settle down.

“Our economic plan is the right one. By bringing back stability in our public finances, boosting investment in our infrastructure and driving reform, we’re building a stronger, more secure economy.”

During her Mais lecture at the Bayes Business School yesterday, the chancellor also asked her officials to work with mayors to “develop a roadmap for future fiscal devolution”, which will be published at this year’s Budget. This will give regional leaders control of a share of some national taxes.

Mr Burnham said the “welcome support from the government is a vote of confidence” in his new £1bn Good Growth Fund, under which an initial £400m investment will deliver nearly 3,000 homes.

“Later this week, we will set out a new round of investment in major projects across all 10 boroughs, delivering the good homes, good jobs and better transport our residents deserve,” he added.

Kim McGuiness, mayor of the North East, said the region’s £120m allocation under the city densification funding is a “huge boost” to its ambition to deliver “some of the country’s most exciting urban development projects”.

Patrick Murray, executive director of policy and external relations at the Northern Housing Consortium, said the body’s research has identified capacity for 320,000 new homes on brownfield land in the North.

He added: “We particularly welcome devolution of the funding to mayoral strategic authorities. They are best placed to use local knowledge to develop solutions to take forward these schemes, and to deliver real change for their communities.”

However, Mr Murray said the regeneration of smaller communities and places across the North is also “very much needed to make sure no one and nowhere is left behind”.