The starting situation is different for each of the partners but all see the potential benefits in using Financial Instruments to develop their cities and promote regeneration and economic development.  All partners, however, have been frustrated by issues such as:-
• unclear regulation from the European Commission
• State Aid issues which make implementing JESSICA programmes difficult and affect the competitiveness of the funds
• limited ERDF funding availability for operations
• the difficulty of interesting private fund managers and investors.

In a number of cases, these are issues which one or more of the partners in the proposed Network has already experienced and addressed and will therefore be able to provide first hand advice and support to other partners through the learning and exchange proposals put forward.

To better articulate the potential role of cities and city planning and governance with respect to financial instruments, by developing practical case studies.

To highlight the merit of financially self-sustaining public intervention through revolving financial instruments and their role in addressing financial constraints and supporting city development plans and growth objectives.

To explore and identify mechanisms to build on existing UDFs so as to ensure they are able to take advantage of new funding opportunities presented in the 2014 -2020 Structural Funds programming period.

To provide practical feedback into the development of the Structural and Cohesion Fund Regulations and the preparation of the next programming documents in relation to sustainable urban development and financial instruments, to ensure that these reflect experience to date, lessons learnt and opportunities identified during the JESSICA implementation process.

Manchester has led the development of the North West of England Evergreen Urban Development Fund under the Jessica Initiative. This has been
a long process which has involved developing an understanding of all of the
issues involved in setting up UDFs. Manchester would like to ensure that lessons are learned from this experience and shared with other partners (including the European Commission) so that the same issues do not continue to cause problems for others and that additional issues are identified and addressed in good time.

We also recognise that there is much that we can learn from the experiences of other cities in setting up similar instruments. Through this project we aim to bring together a number of different cases along with the European Investment Bank to see how such funds can be made to work for all cities.