Infrastructure and real estate development

Infrastructure is a wide ranging and essential phenomena for urban civilisation, but it is also the key enabler in the development and regeneration industries. The complexity of major urban development in UK brings about the challenge of integrating infrastructure creation with real estate development. The UK experience has been characterised by a series of strategies in the past where key infrastructure has lagged/dragged programmes of needed real estate development, which on a high proportion of projects, is the paymaster enabling works. Planning mechanisms by way of conditions and agreements is a method of seeking to extract essential infrastructure costs from the developer. More sophisticated and informed approaches to planning agreements are being applied, particularly as sustainability is now a further requirement within the planning agenda. Major sect. 75 agreements such as King’s Cross and Westfield, Stratford will be evaluated in terms of their effectiveness. Furthermore, the general funding crisis has led to the government and industry seeking other ways of procuring and financing infrastructure. The recent advent of tax increment financing initiative and private infrastructure finance investment vehicles will be explored in terms of its ability to generate key infrastructure. The recent series of TIF confirmations and the linkage to property in terms of overall objectives will be explored. Other mechanisms will be considered such as single estate strategy (Canary Wharf), rates levy (cross rail) and comprehensive public sector funding will also be appraised in terms of their direct cost and benefit provisions with affected real estate and development proposals. The paper will conclude with an indication of UK best practice in delivering real estate through infrastructure innovation.