LONDON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Insurance group Legal & General wants to build five new towns across Britain over thenext ten years at a cost of up to 5 billion pounds ($8.22billion), the company's chief executive told the Sunday Times.
The firm, which manages 440 billion pounds in assetsglobally, said building new towns and regenerating inner citieswas the best way of addressing Britain's housing crisis, andwould also meet L&G's aim of investing more of its pension fundmoney in infrastructure.
"If we can bring communities with us and agree planning,we'd like to help build several new towns across the country.We're already developing towns within cities, in partnershipwith enlightened local authorities and boroughs," L&G's ChiefExecutive Nigel Wilson told the newspaper.
L&G said in March last year that it was looking for moreopportunities to invest directly in infrastructure after it tooka stake in British housebuilder Cala Homes. In December, itinvested 169 million pounds in infrastructure assets including achain of care homes and a planned newhospital.
Housebuilding in Britain is at its lowest in about 90 yearsand economists say the country needs 250,000 homes a year tokeep up with population growth, with demand far exceedingsupply.
Insurers are keen to invest in infrastructure because of thelong duration of the commitments and the steady,inflation-linked returns from rents, which are well-suited forcovering the companies's pension liabilities.