The Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) aims to establish a £46m (50m euro) Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas (JESSICA) holding fund to help regenerate the North West’s urban areas.

Following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the European Investment Bank (EIB), a JESSICA evaluation study of the North West will now be carried out.

The assessment will establish how the funding can support the delivery of urban regeneration projects in the region and how these projects can help the North West to meet the objectives set for the area in the European Regional Development Fund (EDRF) Operational Programme 2007—2013.

Steven Broomhead, CEO of NWDA, said: “This initiative is an opportunity for the region to put a mechanism in place that will ensure we can prolong the benefit of our ERDF Programme.

“JESSICA will allow us to invest in revolving funding, in addition to the normal single use grants. This might be in the form of equity, loan or guarantee perhaps which can then be re-used on other projects again, and again, extending the life of our European funding and helping us to maintain a level of physical regeneration during the difficult economic climate.”

The North West is the second region in England to sign a JESSICA initiative, following a similar agreement between the EIB and the London Development Agency in December.