Legal & General announces £4bn housing and regeneration deal with West Midlands authority

The site has been sitting empty for 20 years but will now be brought back into use with the construction of 234 new energy-efficient homes, 50% of which will be for affordable tenures.

L&G, which manages £1.4tn, has financed more than £30bn of regeneration in UK towns and cities outside of London and is looking at opportunities to repeat this scale of investment.

This is the latest long-term deal the WMCA has signed with a major investor or developer in recent years, with the authority agreeing a partnership with house builder Lovell Partnerships in 2019, which aimed to deliver 4,000 new homes over eight years.

This was followed last year by an agreement with developer St Modwen, which planned to build 5,000 new homes on disused industrial land over the next decade.

Commenting on the L&G deal, Andy Street, mayor of the West Midlands and chair of the WMCA, said: “The unveiling of this £4bn partnership agreement with L&G is a prime example of how the West Midlands is getting on and delivering levelling up.

“This major investment will help regenerate long-neglected areas across the West Midlands, provide affordable homes in the communities where the need is most felt, and supercharge economic growth in the years ahead. 

“The scale of the ambition L&G is showing is evident in both the huge sums involved and the breadth of projects envisioned.

“It is a tremendous vote of confidence in the future of our region from one of the world’s biggest investors, and I am delighted L&G came to the table and signed such a monumental agreement with us.”

Nigel Wilson, chief executive at Legal & General, said: “We have been investing across the UK in partnership with cities and universities for a decade. It’s part of our ‘inclusive capitalism’ approach and has delivered terrific economic and social results. With Andy and his colleagues as ambitious partners at WMCA, we can take this to a new level. 

“The West Midlands economic plan, resources and skills make it an attractive destination for trade and investment from across the world; our role in this is to put UK funds, including pension savings, to work here so UK savers benefit from UK prosperity.”