The 2009 Budget heralded the prospects for city regions and for introducing “innovative financing mechanisms to support locally driven investment in growth and regeneration”. This paper summarises arguments for enabling county councils and unitary authorities to raise finance to achieve new (and “greener”) housing and local economic development in the right places through infrastructure bonds and “quality deals”. It builds on the pamphlet Funding Sustainable Communities, which reviews the options, and on recent research projects into US and European experience with infrastructure funding and regeneration.