In what has been billed as its first significant investment in the North since 2008, the lender has agreed to finance the Sarah Point residential scheme in Manchester.

The mixed-use site in Ancoats, which was started by bankrupt property developer Bashar Issa - who was jailed last week for his part in a £2.8m film tax fraud - has a steel frame but has been mothballed since 2008 when the developer fell into liquidation, reports the Business Desk.

Loan funding from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and Close Brothers has allowed a joint venture between UK Land & Property (UKLP) and McAlpine to re-start work on the scheme, now renamed Sarah Point Nuovo.

The HCA has invested £6 million into this project via a loan from the Get Britain Building programme in addition to the £4 million it had previously invested into the scheme.

The block will have 166 flats, with 40 taken on by social housing landlord Adactus Housing.

Deborah McLaughlin, Executive Director for the HCA in the North West, said: “It is great that Sarah Point Nuovo has started on site. It’s an extremely important scheme for Ancoats and a prominent sign of the activity in the city fringe which has seen over 500 homes start on site with Get Britain Building funding within the last couple of months.”

Simon Parker from UKLP said: “We are delighted to have completed funding agreements to get this scheme moving. We expect the 40 low cost home ownership units, which will be delivered with Adactus Housing, to be completed in the summer next year, and the remaining 126 high quality open market for-sale apartments to be ready for occupation in the autumn of 2014. We are already talking to occupiers for the commercial space on Great Ancoats Street.”

Richard Hemmings of Close Brothers added: “We are extremely pleased to be working with UK Land & Property and Sir Robert McAlpine on this project. Funding important schemes like Sarah Point Nuovo alongside the HCA is an excellent way of levering private sector funding into regeneration schemes, and builds on the confidence private sector investors and developers have already shown in this part of the city."