Regeneration and Investment Strategy

Overview

This strategy replaces the Council’s Commercial Investment Strategy which was approved on December 2019. It reflects changes in the PWLB and the aspirations of the Council to support projects and investments that deliver regeneration, employment, the JLP and housing, strategic investments, climate change and our corporate strategy, within South Hams.

There are only limited occasions when this strategy and the scheme of delegation within it would need to be utilised, but having a scheme of delegation that provides for expedient, auditable decisions is an essential part of a regeneration toolkit. Opportunities that come to the market that align to corporate strategy priorities are often time bound, and the Council must be able to respond to those.

This Regeneration and Investment Strategy includes the following delegations in summary:

  • To the Executive (via a formal meeting) for Regeneration and Investment on Council owned land, including debt finance within the approved borrowing limits.
  • To the Head of Paid Service in consultation with the Executive and S151 Officer for acquisitions, including debt finance within the approved borrowing limits.

Overall Objectives

The Council’s Regeneration and Investment strategy has multiple objectives as stated below:

  • Provide the financial toolkit and borrowing capacity for the Council to underpin its strategic priorities
  • Enable investment in regeneration and therefore the economic activity of the District
  • Allow the Council to have a streamlined decision-making process in place should it be needed for time critical decisions
  • Provide a framework to consider and provide for Security and Liquidity

Desired Outcomes

The following outcomes are desired by the application of this strategy.

Each opportunity will be assessed on its fit with meeting the objectives stated above and should deliver one or more of the following outcomes(benefits):

  • Homes
  • Job creation or safeguarding
  • Health & Wellbeing
  • Town centre regeneration
  • Tourism/Increased footfall
  • Business rate growth
  • Improved asset utilisation
  • Climate change mitigation
  • Connectivity (Physical or Digital)
  • Support the delivery of any other strategic priority of the Council
  • A yield aligned to project risk and financial security –this will vary according to the project.

This strategy will be achieved through acquisitions and developments within the South Hams District. This may include the focussed acquisition of land, existing Regeneration and property assets and the development of new properties which are to be let to third parties. Furthermore it may include investments and acquisitions in infrastructure, homes and the renewable energy sector.

The following four types of investment are recognised in the Statutory Guidance on Local Government Investments (3rd Edition) (SGLGI):

  1. Financial investments:
    • Specified investments - generally short term investments (para 31 and 32)
    • Loans - including to wholly owned companies (para 33 and 34)
    • Non-specified investments (e.g. shares) - generally longer term investments (para 35 and 36)
  2. Non-financial investments (e.g. property) - non-financial assets, held primarily or partially to generate a profit (para 37 to 40)

As described above, this strategy therefore relates primarily to non-financial investments i.e. Property. However, in the case of renewable investments it is possible that they may be classified as Financial Investments –Non specified investments. This strategy recognises that the purchase of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) so as to own, operate or invest in renewable energy generation is a category of investment covered in this strategy.