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Investing in local regeneration projects presents an ideal opportunity to support the government’s growth agenda and create positive social outcomes, for example through job creation, and support into the local economy. One such investment is PIC’s £130 million investment in Miller’s Quay, the cornerstone scheme at Wirral Waters, one of the UK’s largest brownfield regeneration projects. In June, we held its topping out ceremony, the phase of the development marking the highest point of construction. Once completed in 2025, 500 sustainable waterfront apartments will replace the derelict brownfield site that Peel L&P is developing over the next decade, with 100 affordable homes and new transportation infrastructure on the wider Wirral Waters site.
Such investments, which have a lasting impact on current and future generations, are socially beneficial but, as the table below shows, in the short term there are current headwinds to driving social value further and faster. For example, labour costs rose 6% on average in 2022, a trend which is still gathering pace. At the same time construction orders fell in Q1 by 12.4% which was below the five year quarterly average. It’s no surprise that over 4,000 construction company insolvencies have been recorded in the last 12 months – which is the highest since the 2008 financial crisis.
Miller’s Quay
The re-opening of the Chinese economy, post-Covid restrictions will add heightened demand for industrial metals, such as copper and aluminium, further squeezing costs for UK construction. Warehousing and transportation networks are also seeing sharp rises in operating costs in 2023 with little immediate relief on the horizon, as inflation remains stubbornly high, there is a need for material and labour costs to be sourced as locally as possible to become as time and energy efficient as possible.
Combine that with consumers becoming more concerned about the energy efficiency of their homes, as well as a strong legislative focus on emission reduction within Europe, and there is growing motivation for social value and sustainability to be increasingly important priority looking forward.
