North Solihull Regeneration / North Solihull
Partnership
Transforming communities through
commercially viable programmes
The North Solihull Partnership is an
award-winning consortium between residential developer Bellway
Homes, regeneration specialist Inpartnership, Solihull Council and
Whitefriars Housing Group, a not-for-profit housing and
regeneration organisation.
The partnership was set up to regenerate the region of North
Solihull, a significantly disadvantaged area in comparison to its
neighbor, the affluent South Solihull. Its aim is to
transform North Solihull by improving homes, shops, schools, health
and community facilities, transport, the environment and
creating jobs. Sustainability is a key focus for the
partnership.
The 15-year project is one of the UK's biggest
ever regeneration programmes, it involves almost 40,000
residents, 8,500 new houses, 10 schools, 5 village centres and £1.8
billion of public and private investment over the timeframe.
EC Harris was appointed by the partnership at
an early stage to provide commercial advice, expert project
management services and financial modelling consultancy.
Creating solutions
The scale of the project posed numerous
challenges including: infrastructure phasing; business case
modelling; delivery of schools and mixed use ‘town centres’;
housing mix and tenure; and consortium management.
The EC Harris team drew on expertise across a
number of sectors to deliver truly innovative solutions to the
partnership. These included:
- Commercial advice and bid management support throughout the bid
process
- Development of the financial model used to manage the whole
programme of activity, following the consortium’s successful
bid
- Working closely with the partnership to develop its governance
structures and organisational design – focusing on providing a team
that is ‘organised to deliver’
- Management of the financial model, co-ordinating all work
streams to ensure a joined up approach to the programme
delivery.
Adding value
EC Harris’ innovative financial modelling tool
provides the partnership with invaluable information on the
project’s financial situation, at any moment in time. This allows
programme management decisions to be made more quickly and
effectively as they are based on accurate, real-time data.
The financial modelling tool also acts as a
central “anchor” for the project drawing information from all
work-streams together and ensuring all parties are co-ordinated and
effectively working towards the same ultimate goals.
The delivery of the North Solihull generation
project has been used as a blueprint example of how to deliver
regeneration within the Calcutt Review of Housebuilding
Delivery.
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the North Solihull article [125kb]