CITY CENTRE SCHEME REPLACING DECLINING RETAIL WITH NEW MIXED-USE NEIGHBOURHOOD
Sunderland
Project
One of the UK’s most ambitious city centre regeneration schemes creating a new urban quarter at the heart of Sunderland. The 32 hectare brownfield site sits adjacent to the river and requires significant demolition, land remediation and infrastructure investment before redevelopment can take place.
The vision for the site is to create a new mixed-use community delivering around 1,000 homes and 1 million sq. ft of commercial space, helping to reconnect the area with Sunderland city centre and support wider economic growth.
Barriers to delivery
The historic heavy industrial use of the site has created significant abnormal development costs to deliver extensive remediation and enabling works.
The site is made up of three development plateaux’s, is dissected by the river, and is physically disconnected from the city centre by a dual carriageway. There was therefore a need for major infrastructure and connectivity improvements, including a 250m long new pedestrian/cycle bridge, to allow development to progress.
Sunderland has suffered more than most from the effects of de-industrialisation and suppressed land and property values add an extra layer of complexity in addressing the development viability gap.
Leadership & Oversight
Sunderland City Council has a strong track record of leading major regeneration and development schemes, built on retaining strong in-house regeneration capability and long-term partnership working with the private sector.
Funding & Finance
With over £650m invested to date, the scheme required substantial upfront investment to remediate the site and prepare it for delivery.
Grant funding from MHCLG, the North East Strategic Mayoral Authority, and Homes England alongside the Council’s own capital, has supported the delivery of infrastructure and enabling works, and the Council also acted as developer on the initial office and residential developments to stimulate market interest.
This leveraged significant private sector investment from Legal and General, Canada Life, Vistry, Placefirst, and Igloo to bring the site forward for commercial and residential development.
Engagement & Accountability
The Riverside Sunderland Masterplan and Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) for Riverside was subject to extensive public consultation, helping to shape the long-term vision and framework for regeneration.
Capacity & Knowledge
The Council has invested in dedicated development and development management capability while working closely with partners such as Vistry and Igloo to bring forward delivery of the residential development and create a new high quality city centre housing offer.
Planning, Land & Assembly
An SPD for the site was produced in 2020. The Council has undertaken a long-term programme of land acquisition while reserving the right to use Compulsory Purchase Order powers to support comprehensive delivery of the site.
The former Vaux Brewery site itself was acquired in 2011 for £22 million using funding from the then Homes and Communities Agency, former regional governance body One North East, and Sunderland City Council.
Issues to resolve
The homes and wider regeneration would not come forward without significant public grant investment for enabling works, site remediation and infrastructure.
The Current funding system that ‘buys’ housing units is not well suited to the scale of upfront investment required for complex brownfield regeneration and whilst Homes England has been a committed funding partner, its cumbersome processes are not aligned with the complexity of delivering large-scale brownfield regeneration schemes or the Council and the private sector’s ambition to progress at scale and pace.
