Press releases
Legal & General hires Wes Erlam as Director of Urban Regeneration
Legal & General Capital (LGC), Legal & General Group’s alternative asset platform, announces that it has hired Wes Erlam as its new Director of Urban Regeneration
23 Mar 2021
Joining the business on 6 April, this senior appointment demonstrates Legal & General’s commitment to the levelling up agenda, structuring progressive public/private partnerships and providing the significant investment needed to help cities adapt, change and innovate.
Wes brings with him over 20 years of experience in land, development, investment and mixed-use regeneration. More than 12 of those years were spent working for the Morgan Sindall Group, most recently leading the company’s Investment division. In this role he was responsible for spearheading its UK wide public/private partnership development activity and focusing on large-scale, mixed-tenure projects, holding several board positions within its partnerships. He was previously a development director at Morgan Sindall’s sister company, Muse Developments.
In this new role, Wes will oversee all LGC’s direct investments in urban regeneration as they continue to expand, evolve and mature, and will help further bolster its capabilities in creating like-minded joint ventures and public/private partnerships. Currently invested across sixteen UK towns and cities, Legal & General is involved in some of the UK’s largest urban transformation schemes and is funding the next generation of science and innovation centres, which have proven crucial in response to COVID-19. Creating jobs, boosting local communities and helping the UK to build back better, these investments generate returns for shareholders, create attractive assets to back its pension liabilities, and supply desirable alternative assets to LGIM clients.
Kerrigan Procter, CEO of Legal & General Capital: "Further strengthening our asset creation capabilities, Wes brings with him significant experience in the delivery of complex urban regeneration projects and structuring innovative public/private sector partnerships. Legal & General is in a unique position to bring together long-term sources of capital with its deep asset creation, investment and structuring capabilities. We are investing billions of pounds in this way across the UK, in places such as Oxford, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and Cardiff, working with local authority partners, as well as central government bodies and world-leading universities. But as our platform expands, so do our ambitions. Wes will lead this next stage of growth and delivery."
Wes Erlam: "I am delighted to be joining a business that I regard to be the most innovative and forward-thinking investor in the UK. As a leading force for change in the built environment, Legal & General has established an incredible range of genuinely transformational regeneration projects. I look forward to working with the existing public and private sector partners across the portfolio, whilst also seeking to expand the reach of the business into new locations."
Notes to editors
Established in 1836, Legal & General is one of the UK's leading financial services groups and a major global investor, with over £1.2 trillion in total assets under management* of which a third is international. We also provide powerful asset origination capabilities. Together, these underpin our leading retirement and protection solutions: we are a leading international player in pension risk transfer, in UK and US life insurance, and in UK workplace pensions and retirement income. Through inclusive capitalism, we aim to build a better society by investing in long-term assets that benefit everyone.
*at 31 Dec 2022
Legal & General Capital (LGC) is Legal & General Group’s alternative asset platform, creating assets for Legal & General Retirement and third-party clients in order to achieve improved risk-adjusted returns for our shareholders. LGC has built its capabilities in a range of alternative sectors, including in residential property; specialist commercial real estate; clean energy; alternative credit; and venture capital, which are all supported by long-term structural growth drivers, meet a financing gap and respond to a scarcity of supply that is underpinned by enduring societal needs.
Its purpose is to invest society’s capital for society’s benefit. Investing in the real economy and supporting the Group’s focus on climate and inclusive capitalism, LGC’s investments create jobs, change lives and contribute towards a net zero carbon future.
Legal & General has invested over £29bn in levelling-up regional economies, including through major UK-wide regeneration schemes and has recently made a commitment to enable all its new homes to operate at net zero carbon emissions from 2030.
*at 31 Jun 2021