Leeds, Salford and Sheffield property schemes receive Chinese investment

Chancellor George Osborne announced the investment during a trade delegation to China

Chancellor George Osborne has announced a multi-million pound Chinese investment in three property projects in northern England.

Hualing Industry and Trade Group will invest in Scarborough Group-led schemes in Leeds, Salford and Sheffield with a gross value of £1.2bn.

The projects are expected to create 18,000 jobs and 10,000 new homes.

Mr Osborne is in Xinjiang, in China, on a trade visit partly aimed at boosting funding for the "Northern Powerhouse".

The three projects are:

• Middlewood Locks, a £730m residential project in Salford incorporating a total of 2,000 residential units and about 750,000 sq ft of commercial accommodation

• Thorpe Park, a £400m mixed-use project in Leeds

• Sheffield Digital Campus, a £40m commercial and office development that will see 130,000 sq ft of office space built in the city

Scarborough Group chairman Kevin McCabe said: "As a family business with its roots in the north of England, we are now very proud to bring our partners in China to the UK to invest in our great northern cities and to accelerate the development of our major projects in Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield.

"Our partnership with the Hualing Group is a new and exciting one for Scarborough and we look forward to working with them over the coming years to bring our northern projects to fruition."

Mr Osborne said: "We are building an ever closer relationship with China - it's a partnership that is set to unleash growth and help regions like Xinjiang where we know investment can make a real difference, as well as unleash new growth back home, in places like our own Northern Powerhouse."

Julie Dore, leader of Sheffield City Council, welcomed the investment and said she hoped "additional investment from China" would follow as a result of the trade delegation.

"The Digital Campus has been extremely successful in developing new technological businesses in Sheffield and this investment will allow us to take this scheme forward to ensure we remain at the cutting edge of new developments well into the 21st Century," she added.