Overview

AspinallVerdi are retained by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) to help progress the delivery of the six remaining Leeds City Region Phase 2 Enterprise Zones (EZ) sites. The challenge is that the EZ allocated capital funding has to be spent before March 2021 and the majority of the sites are in third party ownership.  AspinallVerdi have led the commission working with co-consultants BDP, RPP and economists KADA Research.

Services

AspinallVerdi carried out a detailed review of the deliverability of each site given consideration to:

·       Planning status

·       Site constraints

·       Land ownership and land assembly

·       Land owner exit strategy

·       Viability

·       Public sector intervention and benefit

Direct discussions have been entered into with both landowners and the relevant local authorities.

Recommendations were made to the Combined Authority on how to speed up the delivery of the sites. This included public sector acquisition and gap funding infrastructure and remediation.

Outputs

Focusing on the most deliverable sites, AspinallVerdi have prepared an Outline Business Case on behalf of WYCA & City of Bradford Metropolitan Borough Council, this has been submitted to seek funding to

 Secure planning permission

• Assemble a parcel of land to enable new road infrastructure
• Remediate the site
• Deliver a new road through the site and associated infrastructure to create serviced plots of land

 AspinallVerdi have also entered into dialogue with two landowners and local authorities to explore options to accelerate delivery.