1. City Deals and sustainable cities
Summer 2012

2. Introduction
In this paper we look back at some
of the key themes in our Sustainable
Cities report and look forward to the
landscape starting to be sketched out
by cities, as part of the ‘City Deals’
agreed by the government.
There is a hunger for Sustainable Cities / Smart Cities
concepts to start to translate into real outcomes – economic
growth, investment in infrastructure, behavioural change.
Twelve months later we are examining the first City Deals,
and it feels as if we could be at the start of a journey towards
a future of Sustainable Cities in the UK. City Deals should be
a major step along the way to delivering sustainable cities, but
how do the proposals shape up to the vision?
Contents
Introduction 1
City Deals 4
Conclusions 6
What does the City Deal mean to Birmingham? 7
What does the City Deal mean to Bristol? 8
What does the City Deal mean to Leeds? 9
What does the City Deal mean to Liverpool? 11
What does the City Deal mean to Manchester? 12
What does the City Deal mean to Newcastle? 13
What does the City Deal mean to Nottingham? 14
What does the City Deal mean to Sheffield? 15

3. We identified three key themes Governance
that needed to mesh together We said that a key element was the creation of
effective relationships between different levels
effectively to deliver the future (global, European, national, regional, city)
for cities: and between the different stakeholders. We
commented that models for public-private co-
• governance – creating the right contractual /
operation are in a state of evolution. In talking to
collaborative partnerships
leading cities, we observed a recognition that city
• finance – creating the right funding authorities do not have the capability to deliver
mechanisms to make cities investable long term sustainability agendas on their own.
We saw the relationship between strategy and
• investment appraisal – using appropriate
delivery at a city and city region level as key. We
frameworks to measure the benefits of
argued the case for separation between the two,
investment and over the right timescales.
with the creation of Infrastructure Investment
Boards (IIB), which would be at arm’s length from
the city authorities, although the latter would have
shaped the vision and remain an influential (but
not necessarily controlling) presence on the Board.
There is a balancing act here, but achieving this
balance, in the multi-stakeholder world that is the
modern United Kingdom, is probably vital. In our
report, we described this balancing act as follows:
‘The IIB needs to be capable of surviving a change of administration,
while fully accountable and democratically responsive in its constitution,
and of pursuing its agenda without policy interference while remaining
transparent and accountable in its actions.’

4. If this sounded complex, it was with plenty of existing and emerging role
models in mind, such as KfW or Stadtwerk Munchen in Germany, or the Green
Investment Bank here in the UK.
Finance
We identified the need for a wide mix of funding coming together, although progress has been
sources – the need for retail investors as well slow. City authorities are resource-constrained
as global institutions, as well as the need to and have focused their finance raising efforts on
avoid the ‘bureaucratisation of finance’ where public pots of money such as ELENA, Nesta and
funding provided through state or supra-national TSB funding.
sources such as the EU can end up shaping the
investment proposition in order to meet the rules
laid down, so the tail ends up wagging the dog. Programme - scaling the opportunity
While public sector finance has a role in
pump-priming projects that ultimately will be
commercially financed, we see the need to create
commercial development funds (perhaps with
Retail Institution
cornerstone public sector investors or where
the public sector gets a carried equity stake for
performing an enabling role) that approach
development risk in a commercial way – as in, for Capital Portfolios
example, the onshore wind sector. Markets
There is an acute need just now for finance to
bridge development risk in order to get projects
to a stage where they are capable of being
Infrastructure
invested in by institutions or infrastructure funds Programs
Funds
and of being institutionalised to the point where
they can safely be offered to retail investors.
We were fortunate to be involved in Bristol’s
ground-breaking ‘Building a Better Bristol’ Early
Pilots
Adopters
project [Building a Better Bristol] earlier this
year. As part of this, we sketched out the
trajectory for institutionalizing finance for a
city region based finance mechanism, as per the
diagram shown.
Over the past 12 months, we have started
to see elements of the finance and governance
themes identified in our Sustainable Cities report

5. Public-private collaboration has generally been
exploratory and either remains high level or has
got stalled as stakeholders struggle to reconcile
commercial objectives and public vision.
The investment appraisal theme we identified
alongside finance and governance has slowly
evolved within investment communities.
Whilst far from being mainstream, a better
understanding of the wider benefits in investing
in social outcomes and social entrepreneurship
is beginning to permeate – probably helped by
obstinately low returns in much mainstream
investment which help to narrow the apparent
gap between standard investment criteria and
those based on a broader set of outcomes.
Credit Suisse, for example, published a
report entitled ‘Investing for impact – How
social entrepreneurship is redefining the
meaning of return’ in January 2012, exploring
this developing space that mixes commercial
and non-commercial outcomes. All of this is
encouraging, but largely untested at scale
– and there is no evidence to suggest that
in the UK developers and the public sector
are taking a consistently longer term view.
Payback remains a major challenge for
much of the low carbon sector, for example.
The City Deals represent an opportunity
for English cities to rewrite the rules of the
game, and some have seized the opportunity.
So how do the first City Deals out of the
blocks look? How sustainable (in its broadest
sense) is the path mapped out for the cities?

6. City Deals
City Deals have thrown wide open the debate about the balance of
power between central, regional and local government.
Challenging cities to take charge of their
own destinies, the Coalition said in
‘Unlocking Growth in Cities’, published
in December 2011, that there was a
deal to be done – if cities deliver more
effective, accountable government,
central government will transfer more
powers and provide incentives for
cities to apply their own solutions.
The proposals were definitely pitched
as something transformative – ‘game-
changing’, to use a cliché.

7. How have cities responded so far? With the exceptions of Manchester, with its innovative
‘earnback model’ and Birmingham, with its pitch for the life
There will be a tendency for commentators to focus on the
sciences sector, a long term, cross-generational vision is not
projects proposed by each of the cities, but in fact what is
very much in evidence. Perhaps this takes time to develop. So
probably most interesting in these proposals is how the
far it is unclear how strong the appetite is for meeting with
governance and delivery mechanisms are articulated, as these
tomorrow’s, as well as today’s, challenges and opportunities.
will set the pathway for future investment and development.
There is considerable variation in how prominent the
These are some of the themes that are starting to emerge: low carbon agenda is in the City Deals. Six cities refer to it,
while Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Newcastle
• Unsurprisingly, jobs feature high on the agenda of every city.
ostensibly place it at the centre of their proposals. In some
Faced with today’s growth challenge, every city authority
cases it seems like an afterthought, if it’s mentioned at all.
has seen a role for itself in addressing this problem. There
This suggests that there is a real tension between pitching
is a mix of supported programmes, reskilling and training
for growth today, using current resource models and
initiatives, alongside enterprise initiatives and proposals
planning for a radically different paradigm in the future.
to develop or build clusters. It is, of course, impossible to
The specific projects proposed just now are in most
predict how successful these will be; quality and flexibility
cases sketched out at a high level, and probably subject to
of delivery will have a major impact. It is clear that cities
the usual rigorous value for money and benefits analysis
perceive a major misalignment in existing skills and training
that accompanies public sector projects. This may in itself
with the opportunities of the future.
present problems later on; there is no guarantee that old-
• Every city has presented the balance of city and region style investment appraisals are flexible enough to provide the
slightly differently. The clearest city-regional strategies right evaluation framework for long term city strategies. One
come from Manchester, Leeds and Bristol, with Greater city was even rash enough to promise to apply the Treasury
Manchester having the benefit of building on a number Green Book rules.
of years of collaborative working and Bristol’s deal For City Deals policy to be genuinely transformative,
establishing ‘enterprise areas’ in places outside the core we believe the powers transferred must be embedded in a
city such as Bath, where full retention of business rate robust governance framework, underpinned by access to
growth will apply. sustainable finance for investment in projects, as we outline
• Alongside ‘traditional’ economic development initiatives above.
such as housing and place-based regeneration are
initiatives about physical and virtual connectivity, with
powers on transport and superfast broadband.
• The role of the private sector in developing the City Deals
themselves varies from city to city. The Birmingham LEP,
for example, seems to have played a significant role, while
in Liverpool, with the transition from Council leader to
mayor, the Council appears to have a firm grip on the
process. However, there are some major corporate players
currently involved in the development of Liverpool’s
future, so perhaps there is more of a public / private mix
than at first appears.

8. These two key pillars are critical determinants
of success or failure.
However, as well as providing governance, the
city authority must also be a catalyst for change
and provide for an effective working relationship
between local and national government, business
and communities. Part of the governance challenge
Manchester has avoided too much granularity
is to allow the ‘white space’ to be created where
in its infrastructure proposals, which we think
trust can be nurtured and the alignment of
makes sense. The ‘earnback model’ could offer a
objectives achieved. In some places, LEPs appear
genuinely sustainable source of finance through
to be stepping into this role, but without access
which Greater Manchester is rewarded for good
to significant financial resources, and they do not
investment decisions made locally – being region
appear to be well constituted to adopt a direct
wide and non sector specific, it is broader in
delivery role.
scope and potential than those funding elements
In respect of both governance and financing
more narrowly defined and tied to specific spatial
frameworks, Manchester’s City Deal appears
(enterprise zones) or economic policy areas (skills,
to capture the spirit of Unlocking Growth
apprenticeships etc.), and to that end it marks
in Cities. Founded on the long-established
a more substantive devolution of powers and
governance framework of the Association of
resource.
Greater Manchester Authorities (“AGMA”),
their ‘earnback model’, aligns investment
resources and economic development returns for
reinvestment in strategic priorities.
The model allows retention of additional
business rates over and above those allowed by the
forthcoming reform of local government finance,
benefiting the city region to the tune of £30m per
year. Not that substantial in isolation, but bigger
ambitions underpin this and, used effectively as
enabling finance, this could unlock substantially
more private investment.

9. Conclusions
It is tempting to say that UK cities are at the beginning of a
journey, but the future is more complex than that. A journey
implies a route and a destination, and potentially a time-table. In
this case, none of these are certain. An expedition might be a more
appropriate analogy.
Flexibility seems to us to be the first watchword - flexibility
in how the detail of how these City Deals is implemented
and how the key delivery partners are engaged.
Sustainability is the second watchword - these
programmes should not be unduly focused on short term
outcomes or take the current resource model as a consistent
baseline. All of these cities have in recent years started to
address the difficult and complex question of how cities
should evolve in the future against a potentially radical
contextual shift. These City Deals shouldn’t pretend that
nothing has changed. This is an exciting opportunity, but
to capitalise on it, cities need to think, plan and govern
differently and for the long term.
More comments on each of the City Deals are provided
in the pages that follow.

10. Birmingham
Manchester
Nottingham
Newcastle
Liverpool
Sheffield
Bristol
Leeds
What does the City Deal mean to Birmingham?
The Greater Birmingham City Deal is entitled “A city region powered by
technological innovation” and it sets out a bold agenda for change designed
to create the conditions necessary for long term sustainable growth. It reflects
a shared vision of the private and public sector partners that form the Local
Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to become a globally competitive city region.
Its City Deal tackles the greatest perceived constraint to The Birmingham City Deal proposes to integrate economic,
local economic action, namely the ability to effectively flex, environmental and social objectives that will need a robust
prioritise and leverage public funds to its area. It aims to governance model and funding structures to support its
aggregate, manage recycle and invest public funds to deliver development. One area not addressed by the City Deal is its
LEP priorities with an emphasis on local priorities and transport infrastructure, which remains a major challenge
private sector co-investment to create a more sustainable for the City and the West Midlands. It has shown it is
form of public funding. The business-led LEP has selected one of the early adopters of new initiative with its Energy
four other economic themes where specific action can Savers Programme so has a strong appetite for meeting
accelerate its productive capacity to address its toughest tomorrow’s, as well as today’s, challenges and opportunities.
economic challenges and to target new growth sectors
where it has emerging strengths and assets:
• skills – tackle the long-standing skills deficit that
weakens our economy, by implementing a Skills for
Growth Compact
• housing – kick start housing and mixed-use development
on public land to address the long-term housing and
employment site needs by investing council land and
creating a new fund to prepare sites
• life sciences – capitalise on Birmingham’s leading
position in life sciences and launch a match-funded
Institute for Translational Medicine, which will co-locate
state of the art clinical facilities with a hub for firms to
engage with clinicians and academics
• low carbon economy – accelerate carbon savings and
create green jobs by expanding its landmark green deal
programme. Birmingham Energy Savers is currently at
the forefront of the domestic energy efficiency agenda
and plans to pilot new green deal solutions in the hardest
to treat properties

11. Birmingham
Manchester
Nottingham
Newcastle
Liverpool
Sheffield
Bristol
Leeds
What does the City Deal mean to Bristol?
Bristol and the West of England have placed a regional governance framework
at the heart of their proposals. The four local authorities of Bristol, Bath &
NE Somerset, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset, with a legally
binding commitment to pool business rates for investment alongside the formal
establishment of the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) in 2011
have the potential to enhance existing governance arrangements by developing a
model for effective business engagement.
The UK Government’s Unlocking Growth in Cities document, inward investors to help grow their businesses and find the
published in December 2011, says: “where cities want to right skills locally to match their needs
take on significant new powers and funding streams, they
5 The Bristol Public Property Board - to manage up to £1
will need to demonstrate strong, accountable leadership, an
billion of Bristol City Council assets and an estimated 180
ambitious agenda for the economic future of their area, effective
land and property assets in the ownership of a range of other
decision-making structures, and private sector involvement and
public sector partners
leadership” Bristol have responded to this challenge by voting
for an elected mayor. This is a programme with a strong project feel to it, focused
This City Deal is intended to unlock significant economic around a small number of big ticket activities. There is a strong
growth for the region and the Bristol City Deal is made up of public sector collaborative feel to it, but less visibility about
five main elements: how the private sector will engage just yet. There are some key
questions are how all of these projects will be bound together
1 Growth Incentive Proposition – allowing the retention
into an effective operational structure and how will it integrate
of 100% of the growth in business rates raised in the city
with the city’s other agendas, such as low carbon energy, which
region’s network of Enterprise Areas, over a 25 year period
is not explicitly referenced in the City Deal.
2 The Transport Devolution Agreement – to allow
investment in major transport schemes, the most ambitious
being the Greater Bristol Metro, through a 10 year transport
funding allocation Other schemes include the delivery of
the Bus Rapid Transit network and new powers over rail
planning and delivery
3 The People & Skills Programme – aiming to give the
business community real influence over skills provision in
the city region working with Further Education colleges for
post-16 provision and the LEP Skills Group
4 The City Growth Hub in Temple Quarter Enterprise
Zone – providing an enhanced inward investment service for

12. Birmingham
Manchester
Nottingham
Newcastle
Liverpool
Sheffield
Bristol
Leeds
What does the City Deal mean to Leeds?
Leeds are building on the emerging Leeds City Region concept which is already
a strong part of the region’s identity, by looking at forming a combined West
Yorkshire authority. The Leeds City Region LEP is wider than the four Authorities
named in the grouping for this City Deal as it also includes areas of North
Yorkshire including York and Harrogate which are geographically more remote.
A combined authority will also need to consider other It aims to create a £1bn ‘West Yorkshire-Plus’ transport
regional initiatives such as the active Aire Valley Enterprise fund to unite the Leeds and Manchester City Regions into
Zone as well as a Homes and Communities Agency Board. a single functional £100bn economy which is consistent
So it is clear further work will be needed to integrate across with the Northern Way initiative which called for closer
the City region. collaboration along the M62 belt and up to Newcastle. There
The City Deal proposal aims to transform the city region’s may be political challenges that come with this approach,
job market with progress on two headline objectives: a but different levels of engagement and collaboration seem
long-term ambition to move to a ‘NEET-free’ Leeds City to be the emerging model. It is interesting that there is
Region and to shape the skills investments of Government, not an obvious symmetry of aspiration on both sides of
employers and individuals to align with the real growth the Pennines, so decisions may need to be made about
sectors in our economy. This will require close collaboration prioritising internal over external transport links.
with higher and further education bodies in the region and
matching skills to demands from the private sector. Leeds has six specific proposals, of which there are four main
Finance will be provided by a pool of up to £200m ones:
from partners within the city region – if it is matched by • skill and worklessness
central government – in a Leeds City Region Investment • transport
Fund for the benefit of the entire area using a common • investment
appraisal framework. It also aims to deliver a much more • trade and inward investment.
business-friendly planning system with the aim of becoming
an exemplar UK low carbon city region in non-domestic There are two ‘Supplementary Proposals’: Planning and
retrofit, low carbon business and sustainable, low carbon the Low Carbon Economy, but it is not clear why the Low
design. This will need to align to the Green Infrastructure Carbon Economy in particular is thought of as a second
Strategy and the recent launch of the City Region’s mini- order priority.
Stern review. Where next? The Combined authority is the governance
The focus is on reducing the region’s £6bn imbalance endgame, with a compelling geographical logic underpinning
between tax revenues and government spend, and using this. However, this doesn’t cover the whole LEP region yet,
some of the fiscal benefits arising from the economic growth so is a two-speed integration in prospect for the Region?
package to recycle into the Region rather than being paid
back to Central Government.
On transport the proposal recognises the urgent need for
improved transportation both within the Region and outside.

13. Birmingham
Manchester
Nottingham
Newcastle
Liverpool
Sheffield
Bristol
Leeds
What does the City Deal mean to Liverpool?
Liverpool City Region sees its core economic strengths as: the SuperPort;
Advanced Manufacturing; the Low Carbon economy, and Knowledge and
Visitor economies.
The UK Government’s Unlocking Growth in Cities funding for 2014-2020 to the City Region to deliver against
document, published in December 2011, says: “where cities agreed investment priorities and support local decision
want to take on significant new powers and funding streams, making.
they will need to demonstrate strong, accountable leadership,
By integrating its economic, environmental and social
an ambitious agenda for the economic future of their area,
objectives underpinned by a robust governance model and a
effective decision-making structures, and private sector
funding structure to support development, Liverpool aims to
involvement and leadership” Liverpool have responded to
deliver a much more business-friendly planning system with
this challenge by becoming one of the first two cities outside
the aim of becoming an exemplar UK sustainable city.
London to elect a mayor.
Where next? Liverpool has some powerful corporate
This City Deal aims to unlock significant economic
players who are central to the delivery of the strategy, a
growth for the region and the Liverpool City Region Deal
number of whom are already heavily involved. The success
includes the following elements:
of the ensuing public-private partnership(s) in delivering the
• low carbon investment – a streamlined planning process agenda is key.
to accelerate over £100m worth of investment in offshore
wind infrastructure in the City Region and create 3,000
jobs
• employment – increase employment by combining
up to £80m public and private employment and skills
investments and empowering businesses to create
more jobs, tackle skills gaps and raise productivity;
supporting 17,400 people into work and creating 6,000
apprenticeships
• transport – creation of a joint investment fund of £800m
supporting the creation of 15,000 jobs
• technology – utilise existing assets and attract new science
investment to increase GVA and generate 2,000 high value
jobs
Supporting this will be the development of a wider Liverpool
City Region Investment Framework to bring together public
funding streams and private sector investments aligned to our
strategic priorities. As part of this Deal Liverpool are looking
for Government to devolve the management of European

14. Birmingham
Manchester
Nottingham
Newcastle
Liverpool
Sheffield
Bristol
Leeds
What does the City Deal mean to Manchester?
If a robust governance structure to underpin City Deal is a prerequisite, then few
cities start with a stronger legacy than Greater Manchester. The deal is founded on
the partnership between the ten local authorities of the city region and the standout
feature is an ‘earnback model’, which seeks to capture the financial returns from
economic growth, for reinvestment in key strategic infrastructure projects.
It is interesting that Greater Manchester had the confidence A rounded package of interventions is proposed for skills and
in its existing governance structures to push back against the employment, which covers:
desire expressed by government for an elected mayor, with
• creation of an Apprenticeship and Skills hub
the May referendum result subsequently supporting that
viewpoint. This was in large measure due to the city having • support to SMEs, both for recruitment and business
possibly the most successful Chief Executive / Council growth
Leader partnership in the UK as well as a stable city region • a key role for the Skills and Employment partnership
structure (AGMA). However, while personal leadership is
a key ingredient, all successful businesses need succession • a science academy for 11 – 18 year olds
planning and that may be something Greater Manchester • development of outcome measures and data collection.
needs to address in the years to come.
Alongside this is a proposed Business Support Hub, which
Manchester’s earnback model is based on an enhanced
looks to fund a range of mentoring programmes for SMEs
business rate retention model, which will see Manchester
and a programme of ultra-fast broadband for businesses.
retain additional business rates over and above that allowed
In the absence of a programme with dates, the assumption
for by the forthcoming reform of the local government
is that Greater Manchester are looking for an early impact,
finance regime, and will benefit the city region to the tune
particularly on the jobs and growth agenda.
of £30m per year. Perhaps not that substantial in isolation,
Also noteworthy is the joint venture arrangement with
but bigger ambitions underpin this and, used effectively as
UK Green Investments which, along with its successor
pump-priming or development finance, this could unlock
body the Green Investment Bank, is likely to want a limited
substantially more private finance.
number of these partnerships to package up and scale up
The City Deal proposal only provides high level
urban low carbon projects.
information about Manchester’s £1.2bn infrastructure plans,
The timetable for delivery Given Manchester’s track
although it refers to the Metrolink extension to Trafford
record in innovation and sheer civic ambition as a key UK
Park. We think this is the right approach – to get the
and world city, we might expect Manchester to push the
governance and finance structures established, then think
envelope further in the future, and make the case for further
about the detail of the key projects the City Deal will deliver.
devolution of powers and the retention of resources, but
there is no reason why other cities shouldn’t do likewise.

15. Birmingham
Manchester
Nottingham
Newcastle
Liverpool
Sheffield
Bristol
Leeds
What does the City Deal mean to Newcastle?
Newcastle Council sees the need for a regional approach to regeneration. They are
looking to work with the seven authorities across their economic area to take steps
towards forming a North East Combined Authority with the support of the North
East Local Enterprise Partnership. Lessons can be learned from combined models
such as AGMA for the Manchester city region but there are clear challenges around
the role of the metropole in driving growth for the region.
The language of the proposal makes it clear that this is a Hub and delivering a NEET Youth Contract Pathfinder
collaboration between local and central government. The across Newcastle and Gateshead
City Deal is quite narrowly focused – its cornerstone is a
• housing – develop and deliver a Joint Investment Plan in
commitment by government to ring-fence business rate
partnership with the Homes and Communities Agency
income in four growth sites in Newcastle and Gateshead,
(HCA) to deliver 15,000 homes within Newcastle’s
and to retain them locally. This arrangement will allow both
urban area, and to improve the functioning of the housing
Councils the financial freedom to deliver private sector-led
market in Newcastle
growth, initiating a £90 million infrastructure programme,
and over the next 25 years to secure £1 billion of investment • transport – develop an investment programme to reduce
and create around 13,000 additional jobs. Other components congestion on the A1 Western Bypass working with key
of the deal include: public and private sector stakeholders
• economic development – creation of a Newcastle/ • connectivity – invest in super-connected broadband
Gateshead Accelerated Development Zone (ADZ), infrastructure, through £4-6 million investment from the
unlocking city centre growth Urban Broadband Fund, matched by a commitment from
Newcastle City Council
• marine and offshore skills development – work
with UKTI and the Centre for Offshore Renewable In the main, these look like fairly discrete programmes and
Engineering to secure a further £500 million in private two key interesting questions are what the strategic narrative
sector investment into the marine and offshore sector, with is that binds these together; and how far into the future the
the potential to create 8,000 jobs across the North East vision goes. The steps towards a combined authority are in
evidence, but highly tentative.
• low carbon – establish Newcastle as a low carbon Pioneer
City, working in partnership to deliver its smart city
ambitions and carbon reduction target of 34% by 2020.
The city will demonstrate good practice, and will receive
support in accessing national and European funding,
including Green Deal and heat network initiatives
• employment and apprenticeships – improve
opportunities through more integrated working with
private and public sectors such as the Newcastle Skills

16. Birmingham
Manchester
Nottingham
Newcastle
Liverpool
Sheffield
Bristol
Leeds
What does the City Deal mean to Nottingham?
The Nottingham City Deal is titled “Connected, Creative, Competitive” and it sets
out an agenda for change designed to create the conditions necessary for long term
sustainable growth. The City Deal is intended to be the catalyst for change, through
enabling the development of the Nottingham Growth Plan’s flagship project: the
Creative Quarter.
The Creative Quarter is the focus for a package of business and demand management to minimise congestion and
development activity intended to enable entrepreneurship to enable growth
flourish within the heart of Nottingham’s city centre. This is
• digital connectivity – develop infrastructure for super-
planned through enabling clustering of businesses in bio-
fast digital connectivity within the Creative Quarter and
sciences and creative industries. Through the City Deal it
beyond
will create a package of investment funds to enable businesses
in the Creative Quarter to grow. This will be supplemented • energy efficiency – work on the Green Deal, including
by business support structures and connections into extending the city district heating system to enable
bespoke apprenticeships. The area will be served by super- businesses to benefit from a Nottingham energy tariff to
fast broadband, low carbon energy supply and improved achieve significant savings
transport links and includes the following package of The Nottingham City Deal integrates its economic,
measures: environmental and social objectives with a range of funding
• enterprise funding – provide financial incentives, models to support development in a number of priority
physical assets and business support structures to enable areas. It is interesting that Nottingham’s focus is on its core,
emerging sectors to further develop including a Venture reflecting the broader shift towards denser city development
Capital Fund to help early stage growth businesses, a that we are seeing globally. At the same time, this programme
Generation Y Fund to help young people start in business has less about its City Region. There is a private sector
and a Technology Grant Fund to support the exploitation theme and a vision for the growth industries of the future
of intellectual property that builds on its core strengths as city with a high quality
of life, excellent transport infrastructure, high skills base and
• skills development – develop structures to simplify
accessible location. The City Deal provides Nottingham with
the process of connecting people to jobs by developing
the opportunity to address tomorrow’s, as well as today’s,
strong relationships with education and training providers
challenges across its growth sectors.
to ensure that provision and economic need within the
Creative Quarter are aligned
• transport – a programme of transport infrastructure and
public realm improvements to fully connect the Creative
Quarter, part-financed by Tax Increment Financing; This
will sit alongside possible national transport upgrades
(such as MML electrification or the second phase of HS2)
and more immediate investments in innovative network

17. Birmingham
Manchester
Nottingham
Newcastle
Liverpool
Sheffield
Bristol
Leeds
What does the City Deal mean to Sheffield?
Sheffield shows a clear commitment to form a combined South Yorkshire authority
that build on the shared ambition of the public and private sectors in the region as
evidenced by the Sheffield City Region LEP model.
Key elements of the Sheffield City Region Deal include:
• skills – creating a demand-led skills system which
provides employers with a workforce able to meet their
growth aspirations, and which secures significant new
investment and engagement from employers in return
• funding – creating a £700m Sheffield City Region
Investment Fund to invest in growth, develop
infrastructure, create jobs and stimulate inward investment
• development – transform the commercial city centre with
a £32.8m New Development Deal enabling the city to
borrow against projected business rates in order to invest
in infrastructure now
• transport – enabling the City Region and LEP to invest
confidently in local connectivity priorities, including
devolution of the Northern Rail franchise and local
management of the trams and ensuring reliable access to
the new HS2 station
• procurement – develop a national centre for procurement
based around SCR’s Advanced Manufacturing and
Nuclear Research Centres. This will presumably build on
the existing regional skills in the nuclear sector
By integrating its economic, environmental and social
objectives underpinned by a robust governance model and a
funding structure to support development, Sheffield aims to
deliver a much more business-friendly planning system with
the aim of becoming an exemplar UK sustainable city. At the
same time, there is a strong theme of central (public-sector
controlled?) co-ordination in the funding mechanisms and
management of core infrastructure, especially transport.

18. Contact us
For further information on this report and its
findings please contact:
Nathan Goode
Partner
Head of Energy, Environment and Sustainability
T (Edinburgh) 0131 659 8513
T (London) 020 7728 2513
E nathan.goode@uk.gt.com
Phillip Woolley
Partner
Government Infrastructure and Advisory
T (Manchester) 0161 953 6430
E phillip.woolley@uk.gt.com
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