Jeremy Richards, head of the Bristol office of international property agents JLL, said that while the Autumn Statement was had a macro-economic outlook there were some important messages for the regions, including the South West.
“Hammond acknowledged that Britain’s economic prosperity is too heavily focused in London and the South East and the announcement of funding for the regions and Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) is encouraging,” said Mr Richards, pictured below. 
“Together with the announcement of new borrowing powers for the regions, the building blocks are being put in place to create a more balanced economy.
“We welcome the investment in infrastructure as this is key to creating a competitive economy. However, details on how the money is to be spent has not yet been released and, until we see this, it is hard to make an informed judgement on how the effects will be felt in our local and regional economy.
“The government’s plans to invest £390m into low emissions vehicles and autonomous vehicles is particularly good news for the Bristol economy, which is strong in this sector.
“Plans to introduce 100% business rates relief on new fibre is also good news as this will essentially incentivise the development of new fibre optic broadband infrastructure, which is an important step in establishing the UK as a world leader in the digital economy.”
Tim Davies, pictured below, head of the Bristol office of Colliers International, described the Autumn Statement as a “boost for the regions”.
He said: “The Chancellor was absolutely right when he called for improved performance from regional cities, and noted that too much growth is concentrated in London and the South East.
“The need to rebalance the UK’s economy is something that we appreciate only too well in the South West, which is a thriving region but has the potential to be even more successful.
“It is good to see the Chancellor putting his money where his mouth is, with an allocation of £1.8bn for English regions from the local growth fund, which will include a total of £191m to the South West, of which individual Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) in the region will benefit.
“This funding, together with new borrowing powers for local authorities, represents a welcome boost for the regions at a time when the West is preparing for devolution.
“In addition, given that consultation is currently underway on the West of England draft Joint Spatial Plan on housing allocation, and the Joint Transport Study, it was particularly timely to announce the plan to unlock land for housing with a £2.3bn housing infrastructure fund to enable the construction of 100,000 new homes in areas of high demand.
“The regions will also undoubtedly benefit from £23bn National Productivity Investment Fund for innovation and infrastructure over the next five years.”
Laura Stamboulieh, pictured right, partner in Cushman & Wakefield’s public sector advisory team said that while the South West was benefitting from only 11% of the £1.8bn award to Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), the firm welcomed the government’s commitment to a third round of Growth Deals. 
“This is highly important to private and public sector partnerships who are prepared to support the regeneration of our region,” she said. “The distribution of the £191m across our South West LEPs is eagerly awaited.
“We welcome the government’s suggestion of greater flexibility in local authority borrowing to invest in ‘economically productive infrastructure’. Local authorities are best placed to deliver at a local level but many have an aversion to borrowing.
“We can see that support – encouragement – from government to access money at attractive rates could act as a well-needed catalyst.”
Head of the firm’s Bristol Office, Tim Davis, also welcomed the launch of the National Productivity and Investment Fund, but said the overall concern was that the South West seemed to be the poor relation when compared to the overt financial commitments made to the all other UK regions in the Autumn Statement.
“Greater Bristol itself is the only city outside London producing a positive GDP and further material investment needs to be secured to capitalise on the city’s proven success to date,” he said.
The background to this was that the property sector in Greater Bristol and wider South West had continued to deliver over recent years and had remained remarkably resilient since the EU referendum, although the uncertainty on what Brexit was going to actually look like and its eventual impact continues.
Paul Williams, head of agency at Bruton Knowles’ Bristol office, pictured left, singled out the further £390m to build up the UK’s advantage in low emission vehicles and installation of electric vehicle charging infrastructure particularly welcome for Bristol.
“Bristol has already switched on to this technology under the previous elected mayor, and the infrastructure is there to serve future usage levels rather than trying to identify locations to invest in once green travel has really taken off,” he said.
“Demand for electric car charging points may not be sky high at the moment, but it will increase over time as more motorists switch over to electric or hybrid vehicles.
“An established and recognisable infrastructure is vital to the development of the hybrid market – as without a widespread and accessible network of charging points motorists will remain reluctant to commit to greener vehicles.”
