Cable said the £700 million inward investment deal would be delivered through residential and urban regeneration specialist Sigma Capital Group with backing from international investors Gatehouse Bank.
He said the new joint venture would enable Sigma to build up to 6,600 new privately rented homes in the UK. He said that sites for an initial 2,000 homes have already been identified in Liverpool and Greater Manchester.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said that the deal has been facilitated by UK Trade and Investment’s (UKTI) Regeneration Investment Organisation (RIO), unveiled last week by Prime Minister David Cameron, to direct investors to development opportunities throughout the country.
Cable said the announcement will “create thousands of modern new homes as well as new jobs in Liverpool and Manchester, with similar plans in the pipeline for other regions in the country”.
Sigma Chief Executive Graham Barnet said:
“We have developed an innovative joint venture model designed to deliver high quality homes in areas of the country where rental housing is in extremely short supply. Gatehouse has substantial knowledge of and expertise in the UK property market and has shared our vision for this project. I am delighted that we are now working together to deliver the roll-out of our model, which has the potential to create one of the largest new-build privately rented residential portfolios in the UK.
Underpinning this new venture are our Local Authority Partnerships and I am extremely pleased that this agreement creates the conditions for us to help efficiently deliver their regeneration objectives with high quality new homes. Once bank funding is in place, we look forward to delivering the initial tranche of up to 2,000 new homes in Greater Manchester and Liverpool over the next 2 years."
