Sir Nigel Wilson, Group Chief Executive of Legal & General, visited Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park earlier this month in his first trip to the city following his knighthood in the 2022 New Year Honours.

The visit originated through Legal & General’s close working relationship with Scarborough Group International (SGI), the development partner behind the next phase of Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park.

Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park is an economic regeneration project with the vision to establish a world-class community for the health, wellbeing, sport and activity sectors and is the world’s only Olympic legacy park outside a host city.

Working in conjunction with Legacy Park Ltd, SGI has signed a development agreement with Sheffield City Council to build on the significant progress made to date by developing a masterplan to deliver a further 850,000 sq ft of commercial space capable of generating over 5,600 high value jobs.

As part of the tour, Sir Nigel and his colleague, Gordon Aitchison, visited some of the Park’s existing facilities, including the English Institute of Sport Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre – a state-of the-art, research and design facility aimed at transforming lives through innovations that help people move.

Legal & General is already a significant stakeholder in the wider Sheffield region. In addition to Leeds Thorpe Park, the business is delivering a £150m regeneration scheme at Sheffield West Bar Square, including Grade A office space and Build to Rent housing. These schemes form part of Legal & General’s £30bn regeneration programme across the country, which is supporting the levelling up agenda, regional job creation and economic growth.

Commenting on his visit, Sir Nigel said: “My recent visit to Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park was fascinating. Seeing the innovative solutions being developed to support people in living healthier and more active lifestyles was remarkable and I will continue to watch the Park’s progress with interest, as our long-standing partner, SGI brings forward its masterplan.”

Kevin McCabe, Chairman of SGI, added: “Having worked with Sir Nigel for over six years on our Thorpe Park Leeds project, we have long-admired his vision for driving greater investment in infrastructure and economic regeneration, and we are delighted that he could visit Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park and see first-hand our plans for transforming the eastern quarter of the city into a vibrant, world-class community for the health, wellbeing, sport and activity sectors.”

Former Sports Minister and Legacy Park Ltd Chair, Richard Caborn, added: “It was a pleasure to showcase Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park to Sir Nigel, in particular the world-class facilities at the English Institute of Sport Sheffield and some of the Olympic and Paralympic athletes in training there.

“As we approach the 10th anniversary of London 2012 we are proud to be driving whole population improvements in health and wellbeing and delivering an Olympic legacy through the themes of Sport, Community, Environment and Economy.”

Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park is bringing together expertise from academia, elite sport, the NHS, and public and private sector organisations, to create a unique world-class cluster of life sciences assets including research centres, business incubators, educational facilities and laboratories for collaborative research and innovation in health and wellbeing.

Photo L-R: Kevin McCabe (Chairman – SGI), Rob McCracken MBE (Performance Director – GB Boxing), Sir Nigel Wilson (Group Chief Executive – Legal & General)