Property intervention for renaissance

The Regional Economic Strategy has ‘great places’ at its heart. The role of the Strategic Development & Property team at Yorkshire Forward is mainly to help create those great places.

The team’s role is to support sustainable economic growth, and play an active part in the work of our urban regeneration companies (URCs) and city development companies (CDCs). We want to help provide new and exciting economic opportunities.

This page tells you about our Property policy. To find out about the support we're delivering, please refer to our our strategic development and property and housing pages.

What is the team doing?

  • Overcoming market failure and fostering social equality
  • Working to maximise European funding
  • Working to leverage private-sector funding and expertise
  • Funding and/or enabling strategic infrastructure
  • Developing the effectiveness of our URCs
  • Supporting our emerging CDCs
  • Influencing the region’s major utility companies
  • Managing the restoration and/or re-development of former coalfield sites
  • Encouraging sustainable construction.

Where are we working?

  • We’re city- and town-based, supporting the ‘great places’ agenda and the work of the URCs and CDCs
  • We’re focusing on South Yorkshire, maximising European funding and undertaking coalfield restoration and redevelopment
  • We’re working at national, regional and sub-regional levels to influence utilities and constructing excellence
  • We have a region-wide role in providing property support to Yorkshire Forward.

Economic opportunities

Our activity will lead to new economic opportunities for the region. These include:
  • Encouraging investment into areas previously overlooked
  • Encouraging further activity where we are already focusing, such as our priority sectors
  • Raising the quality of design and sustainable construction—potentially leveraging further investment through better surroundings and lower running costs
  • Improving the quality of the environment by reclaiming and redeveloping areas of dereliction, or providing new areas of public open space. These will encourage new investment and improve land and rental values
  • Encouraging private-sector investment where we act as the risk-taker.

Who are we working with?

  • To draw on the vast expertise and talent in the region, a consultancy panel has been set up. It is reviewed every 3 years, and further companies may be added where there is a shortfall in a particular expertise
  • External partnerships are set up in many cases, creating legal agreements with companies to provide the necessary framework for private-sector partnerships
  • On some occasions, work may be undertaken directly by Yorkshire Forward or through stakeholder/partnership organisations (eg local authorities). In these instances, work may be directly contracted by Yorkshire Forward or a service-level agreement/funding agreement will be entered into where delivery is via a third-party group.