The Preston and Lancashire City Deal is an agreement between the Government and four local partners; Lancashire County Council, Lancashire Enterprise Partnership, Preston City Council and South Ribble Borough Council.
The deal is a landmark agreement to achieve a once-in-a-lifetime transformation of the area, creating thousands of new jobs and homes.
A total £434m new investment will lead to the expansion and improvement of the transport infrastructure in Preston and South Ribble at an unprecedented rate, enabling a forecast 20,000 new jobs and 17,420 new homes to be created.
It will provide a huge boost to the local economy, which is expected to grow by £1 billion over the next ten years.
The central Lancashire area has enjoyed amongst the best rates of new job creation in the United Kingdom over the last decade, with more than 20,000 new jobs created in the private sector.
This reflects the area's excellent location, skilled workforce, strengths in training and education, and quality of life. The City Deal is based on the premise that there is great potential for this rate of growth to continue, but only if the core infrastructure is transformed to provide the extra capacity further significant growth would require.
Without this infrastructure, growth will be constrained.
The deal includes a £334 million Infrastructure Deliver Programme including:
* The Preston City Council and South Ribble Borough Council contributions are largely made up of an anticipated, rapid increase in receipts from the New Homes Bonus and income from business rates generated as a result of the City Deal proceeding.
The main transport schemes included in the City Deal are:
There will also be a £100m investment fund, from the Lancashire County Pension Fund. This will be a new venture under which the pension fund will invest in local schemes on a commercial basis. The pension fund manages a portfolio of investments across the UK - this new approach ensures that some of its investment will in future be concentrated on the Preston and Lancashire area.
Find out how the Preston, South Ribble & Lancashire City Deal will transform central Lancashire over the next ten years, helping to improve travel times, create new jobs and build new homes.