Voices of Regen: ‘Rocket‑boosting’ the West of England’s regeneration strategy

According to John Wilkinson, director of homes and regeneration at the West of England Combined Authority (WECA), the region is already one of the UK’s most productive, but its leaders believe it can go much further. 

Under metro mayor Helen Godwin, the combined authority has set out a bold, long‑term regeneration agenda designed to unlock stalled housing sites, overhaul transport, and build an innovation‑driven economy anchored in green industries and advanced manufacturing.

“We need to get rid of the things stopping the region from achieving its potential and give it some rocket boosters,” says Wilkinson, citing mass transit and skills as key drivers of growth.

In the latest Voices of Regen interview for Housing Today’s Regen Connect campaign, the former area director and programme director for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, discusses his plans for the West of England, his favourite projects and what makes the region an “extraordinary place to live.”

Playing to regional strengths 

The region’s 10-year growth strategy published in 2025 identifies several high‑value sectors where the West of England has a national advantage: creative industries, aerospace and advanced manufacturing, and - increasingly - green jobs. With the Severn Estuary at its heart, the authority sees major opportunities to harness tidal power, working with partners “across the water” in Cardiff.  Meanwhile, two small modular reactors (SMRs) are planned for sites in Berkeley and Oldbury in Gloucestershire.

We’re one of the last core city regions without a mass transit scheme. We want people to be able to turn up anywhere in the region and get where they need to go

John Wilkinson, West of England Combined Authority

“We’ve got a huge opportunity around the green jobs of now and the future,” says Wilkinson, adding that WECA is keen to leverage its position on this “particular kind of advantage.”

But unlocking those jobs requires tackling entrenched inequalities in skills by upskilling residents. While parts of the region boast “really high levels of skills”, others sit at the opposite end of the spectrum. 

Transport is the other major lever. “We’re one of the last core city regions without a mass transit scheme,” notes Wilkinson. “We want people to be able to turn up anywhere in the region and get where they need to go.”

The emerging mass transit programme is deliberately “mode‑agnostic” with buses in some areas, metro or rail in others, all tied together through a London/Manchester‑style tap‑on, tap‑off system. A detailed strategy is set to follow the transport vision document, published in February 2026.

The viability challenge and a new funding model

Like many regions, the West of England faces acute viability issues. Around 15,000 homes with planning permission are currently stuck in the pipeline - something the combined authority is looking to address with a new blended finance funding model similar to Manchester’s Good Growth Fund.

The £500m Future Places Fund is an investment vehicle designed to unlock patient capital for stalled regeneration across the West of England’s strategic growth zones. By combining public‑sector leadership with institutional capital, it aims to use early land acquisition and proactive development to accelerate brownfield and mid‑market housing schemes, particularly those facing viability gaps. A split‑capital model will allow pension funds and other investors to take lower‑risk preference shares while the combined authority holds common equity, aiming to crowd in around £2 of private investment for every £1 of public funding. Typical projects will deliver 100+ homes and align with the region’s priority pipeline in partnership with Homes England. 

Meanwhile, as the lead regional delivery partner on the government’s small sites aggregator pilot, WECA sees the potential in smaller brownfield developments that may struggle to attract investment.

In May 2026, housing minister Matthew Pennycook announced the national rollout of the small sites aggregator following successful pilots in Bristol, Lewisham and Sheffield, announcing that the move would deliver 10,000 homes for social rent a year.

The initiative pools dozens of tiny, unviable local authority-owned plots into a single, more attractive proposition, supporting SME developers and the use of modern methods of construction. It would also create an “enabling planning environment”, Wilkinson explains, using local development orders to grant planning permission to such sites by default.

In May 2026, the combined authority secured £45m for housebuilding from the government - its first ever allocation of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government’s brownfield housing fund. It also works “really closely” with Homes England within a strategic place partnership, underpinned by a business plan launched in March this year. The region was awarded £1m to accelerate strategically important development projects, including around Hicks Gate and the St Philip’s Marsh masterplan at the Bristol Temple Quarter development. 

Crucially, WECA is also exploring ways to borrow against future income streams - business rates uplift, land value capture and potentially a tourist tax - to fund infrastructure upfront.

“We don’t want to go to government with unrealistic cap-in-hand requests for massive amounts of grant funding, because we all know that that’s not available at the moment,” says Wilkinson. “What we want to do is to articulate to the government that there’s a massive growth opportunity in the West of England. It’s already here, but we could do a whole load more… come with us on the journey.”

Meanwhile, one of the most significant pieces of work underway is the 30‑year spatial development strategy (SDS). Due for sign‑off in 2028, it will set out how land will be used for housing, employment space, energy infrastructure and water resources across the whole region. This means local plans will need to conform to the SDS, giving developers far greater certainty.

“If you bring forward a site that aligns with the SDS, you’ll get a smoother ride through the planning system,” notes Wilkinson.

Wilkinson’s eight and a half years in local government and five years in Whitehall have taught him how a vision coupled with a “comprehensive, joined-up strategy” can drive successful regeneration initiatives. 

Get the vision and the story and the narrative right and then work really hard to build trust between public and private sectors 

“Get the vision and the story and the narrative right and then work really hard to build trust between public and private sectors to play their parts in delivering that vision,” is his biggest lesson learnt and the advice he heeds in his work at WECA. “I think that’s what we’re really seeing in the West of England at the moment, led by really strong political leadership in our case, through a mayor that has got massive ambitions for the region and has brought the local authorities together on that journey already.”

The West of England also sees itself as a champion of the natural environment, with Wilkinson describing its regional assets as the “magic fairy dust that gives the place even more of an edge” on top of its economic success.

And while most local authorities would love a little magic fairy dust to lift the weight of regeneration’s challenges, the West of England’s enormous ambition suggests that, fairy dust or not, there is always room for improvement, even in the country’s most productive regions.