Our approach in several cities has been to take our cues from the vision of the local civic leadership, who tend to be better informed about what will make a town or city work better. We've found that when you're trying to deliver local prosperity, usually it doesn't matter whether local authorities are on the right or left, politically—or a mixture of both. Civic pride usually beats politics.

For example, we started a regeneration project in Newcastle by talking to the chief executive of the local city council—a politically neutral civil servant. We encouraged the city to make their case to the central government, which was then under a right-wing finance minister, to try and garner a devolution deal that would grant the city greater powers and more money. As a next step, we engaged with the mayor of Newcastle and the leader of the council, a Labor Party member whose viewpoint would put place him on the political left. In practice, these political disparities didn't make any difference, because the parties shared a collective vision—making Newcastle a better place.

It's More About Partnerships Than Bidding

Finally, there's a third principle that drives our decision-making process – thinking about how we choose where we want to invest—the location, the site itself and the context.—We prioritize partnership with the city we're working with above bidding on particular projects. We've found that our offer of very long-dated patient capital usually paves the way to a successful debt financial deal—projects tend to fund themselves with this approach.

In Leeds, we're funding a large chunk of high-end rental accommodations as well as a business park that will provide 13,500 jobs. To connect this infrastructure, it's necessary—in the UK, at least—to have a railway, which we're funding, and a road, which we're also funding. In Leeds we're also appealing to civic pride by refurbishing a well-known and beloved cricket ground. All of these things add up to about £650 million (roughly
$900 million) of investment in Leeds.

The key difference between projects in the UK and here in the US is one of sheer scale. Distances between cities in the US are vast; here there is the luxury of urban sprawl. So for Americans, the word 'infrastructure' might conjure something big and impersonal—gigantic bridge and highway projects, water service to entire, vast regions. Nonetheless, most infrastructure issues are exactly the same both here and across the Atlantic: everyone needs decent living conditions, clean water, living-wage jobs and a way to get to them.

Nigel Wilson was appointed Group Chief Executive of Legal & General in 2012 having joined as Group Chief Financial Officer in 2009. In 2015 – 2016 Wilson was a member of the Prime Minister's Business Advisory Group. He can be reached at [email protected]