Birmingham city council has launched a search for an urban development fund manager to help set up a £20m development fund to support regeneration projects in the West Midlands.
The local authority has placed a formal notice via OJEU seeking a partner with specialist knowledge on the Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas initiative (JESSICA).
JESSICA is a new way of using EU funding to promote sustainable investments and growth in urban areas.
The £20m fund will comprise a £10m grant from the European Regional Development Fund plus a further £10m match funding from other sources. Birmingham council is likely to use some of its land to seed the fund in a bid to leverage investment.
The UDF fund manager’s contract is for a 10-year period. Initial cash from the JESSICA fund will need to be spent by 2015. Targeted outputs for the fund are to create 800 new jobs, provide over 320,000 sq ft of new or refurbished floor space and redevelop or reclaim 15 acres of brownfield land.
Birmingham council is the lead partner of a group of local authorities and agencies across the West Midlands to establish the urban development fund. Partners include: the Homes and Communities Agency, Coventry city council and local authorities in Dudley, Coventry, Sandwell, Solihull, Stoke, Walsall and Wolverhampton.
The closing date for submissions is 24th January 2012 with a view to the contract starting by the end of February next year.
JESSICA-funded initiatives have already been established in the East Midlands, the North West, London, Scotland and South Wales. They are overseen by independent managers, including King Sturge, GVA and Lambert Smith Hampton.
lisa.pilkington@estatesgazette.com
