Friday 28 January 2022

PIC invests £130m into low carbon housing

Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) will invest £130 million into a low carbon urban regeneration project.

The Wirral Waters One (WWO) project is a 500-acre brownfield site, set to become the largest regeneration project in the UK and create 20,000 jobs.

It will consist of 500 one and two-bedroom apartments, as well as 100 homes.

Solar power systems, heat pumps and electric vehicle (EV) charging points will be added to cut down the carbon emissions of the accommodation.

One in five of the apartments will have rents set at a maximum of 80% of open market value to make them affordable and trees are being planted to boost the biodiversity of the project, with 1,600 done so far.

This is on top of its £128 million investment to convert 1,230 student rooms at the University of Birmingham into low carbon living spaces.

The WWO will be developed by Peel L&P. Executive Director of Development, James Whitaker, said: “This project is a great example of partnership working that will not only deliver this development but will act as a model for other schemes in the future.”

“We need secure long-term cashflows to back the pensions of our 300,000 policyholders and so seek to invest in assets with a high degree of social value, because what makes sense for society helps us achieve our purpose over decades,” said PIC’s Hayley Rees.