Tim Davis, Head of the Bristol Office of Cushman & Wakefield responds to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement:
“The property sector in Greater Bristol and wider South West has continued to deliver over recent years and has remained remarkably resilient since the EU referendum, although the uncertainty on what Brexit is going to actually look like and its eventual impact continues.
“The National Productivity and Investment Fund is welcomed, but the overall concern is that the South West seems to be the poor relation when compared to the overt financial commitments made to the all other UK regions today.
“Greater Bristol itself is the only city outside London producing a positive GDP and further material investment needs to be secured to capitalise on the city’s proven success to date.”
“We all know Housing supply and affordability is a huge issue. The commitment to support affordable housing is to be welcomed, but only computes to £35,000 per house and an ‘average house’ costs circa £75,000 build. While the challenge to the Public Sector is to actually identify and release land for housing development within sensible timeframes.”
Laura Stamboulieh, Partner in Cushman & Wakefield’s Public Sector Advisory Team comments:
“Whilst the South West is benefitting from only 11% of the £1.8 billion award to Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), we welcome the Government’s commitment to a third round of Growth Deals. This is highly important to private and public sector partnerships who are prepared to support the regeneration of our region. The distribution of the £191 million across our South West LEPs is eagerly awaited.
“We welcome the Government’s suggestion of greater flexibility in local authority borrowing to invest in ‘economically productive infrastructure’. Local authorities are best placed to deliver at a local level but many have an aversion to borrowing. We can see that support (and encouragement) from Government to access money at attractive rates could act as a well-needed catalyst.”
