Chinese contractor Citic Construction has joined forces with Chinese developer ABP and Thai company CP Group to create the East London Development Group to undertake projects in the area.
ABP and Citic are already developing the £1.7bn Royal Albert Dock office development in east London, which has been described by ABP Chairman Xu Weiping as “just the beginning”.
The three companies will now invest in projects around the Royal Albert Dock scheme through the development platform. The intention is for the East London Development Group to enable other Asian investors to become involved in UK projects, which would be built by Citic.
The news comes as chancellor Philip Hammond set out 13 projects in the Northern Powerhouse which he hopes will attract Chinese funding.
ABP chose state-backed Citic as its construction partner for the Royal Albert Dock in October 2015, under the condition it partnered with a UK contractor to help it deliver the project. The first phase of the development is worth more than £300m and is being built in partnership with Multiplex as subcontractor.
ABP chief operating officer John Miu said any future projects, in addition to the docks scheme, would be developed through the East London Development Group and would also be constructed by Citic in partnership with UK firms.
In addition to east London, Mr Miu has said the company would be looking at the Northern Powerhouse as well as other countries in Europe.
Hammond presented the Northern Powerhouse schemes to a delegation led by Chinese vice premier Ma Kai.
He said: “As we seek to take to take the golden era of UK-China relations to the next step, we have a major opportunity to open up investment opportunities across the Northern Powerhouse.”
The 13 projects within the Northern Powerhouse Investment Portfolio include:
- AeroCentre, Doncaster: working with Sheffield Airport in the next phase of development to create new offices, logistic units and aviation hangars.
- Future Carrington, Trafford: opportunities for investment in a large-scale residential and employment development in a prime location, providing more than 14,000 new jobs and contributing an additional £720m GVA per annum.
- Kampus, Manchester: an opportunity to create new city centre apartments and retail including bars, cafes and shops.
- Kirkstall Forge, Leeds: an opportunity to develop a new neighbourhood of 1,050 new homes, office space, retail, leisure and community space.
- Liverpool Waters, Liverpool: this offers sale of land to develop a full range of uses, as part of an overall £5 billion project which transform the city’s northern docks.
- MediaCityUK, Salford, Greater Manchester: home to the BBC, ITV and more than 250 smaller creative and digital businesses, an investment would double the size of MediaCityUK, creating studio, office, residential and retail space.
- Pall Mall, Liverpool: this involves working with Liverpool City Council on a major regeneration project delivering 1000 new homes, office space as well as retail leisure and community facilities.
- Protos – Ellesmere Port, Cheshire: this project includes a range of investment opportunities in gas fired power generation, energy generation, industrial development and rail and berth infrastructure, generating over 3,000 new jobs with first phase along producing £350m GVA each year.
- Sirus Minerals, Polyhalite Project, Whitby, North Yorkshire: an opportunity to invest in the building of the first potash mine in the UK for over 40 years. Full production capacity will be 20 million tonnes per annum, directly creating more than 1,000 new jobs.
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