Legal & General invests £1.5bn in ‘levelling up’

Legal & General has revealed it has invested around £1.5bn in levelling up the UK’s towns and cities since the beginning of the pandemic last year.

New figures released by the company show it has secured planning permission for around 6,000 homes through its later living, build to rent, modular housing and build to sell businesses since March 2020.

It has also backed the creation of thousands of new affordable homes through long-term debt financing and its affordable housing arm.

Its most recent housing commitment was agreed at the end of December 2020 in Bristol, where it secured consent to deliver 185 homes through modern methods of construction.

The energy efficient scheme has been developed with Bristol City Council in Bonnington Walk, Lockleaze and will have half of its homes as dedicated affordable. As Legal & General continues to support a move towards a net zero carbon future, it has committed to make all its new housing stock operationally net zero carbon enabled by 2030.

‘With UK unemployment likely to rise significantly over the next 12 months, it’s essential that financial institutions continue to invest in the real economy, recycling pensions funds and savings into projects that help to create jobs, housing and vital infrastructure,’ said chief executive, Nigel Wilson.

‘As a group, Legal & General is committed to supporting productive finance initiatives, in turn fast-tracking the UK’s economic recovery and providing positive, long-term outcomes for our investors.

‘Through our group-wide commitment to inclusive capitalism, we are looking at how investment capital can not only create stable, long-term returns for our customers, but also to help to re-build regional economies in the wake of Covid-19 and limit the impacts of climate change,’ added Mr Wilson.

‘Our triangle of strategic challenges – climate, ageing and infrastructure – have all taken on a new urgency.  We need to build back better, decarbonising our economies, creating a new intergenerational contract and sharing the benefits of a sustainable economy more fairly.’

Photo Credit – Pixabay