Enterprise zones investment grows to over a billion pounds
Eleven enterprise zones will benefit from a £150 million boost from the government to create local jobs and secure growth across England.
Eleven enterprise zones will benefit from a £150 million boost from the government to create local jobs and secure growth across the country, Local Growth Minister Mark Prisk announced today.
The fourth round of the Regional Growth Fund will help companies in enterprise zones expand their operations, creating new private sector jobs and economic growth. This means enterprise zones and the local enterprise partnerships which support them will benefit from just under £800 million of government investment which has been already matched by almost £230 million of private sector investment, with many more on the pipeline.
Local Growth Minister Mark Prisk said:
This is more good news for enterprise zones. They are already having a positive impact in the economy, having created 3,000 jobs and attracted £230 million in private sector investment since their standing start 1 year ago.
Their significant tax incentives, simplified planning and super fast broadband are making the country a great place to do business and rebalancing the economy by creating new local jobs and business ventures.
Today’s extra investment will give our enterprise zones another boost towards delivering strong and lasting growth so we can compete in the global economy.
Today’s announcement is just one of range of steps the government has taken to rebalance the economy and support local businesses looking to grow and create jobs.
This government has reformed the way councils are funded by establishing 39 local enterprise partnerships that along with enterprise zones are able to access the billions of government investment to support their local economy, including the £3.2 billion Regional Growth Fund.
Notes to editors
1) Since their standing start in April 2012, Enterprise Zones have created 3,000 new jobs, attracted 126 new businesses and generated 105,000 square metres of new commercial floorspace.
2) Eleven enterprise zones have been selected:
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Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership: Awarded £5 million to offer support to small businesses in the area, including those locating in the enterprise zones in Mersey Waters, Daresbury and City Centre Enterprise Zone.
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Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership: Awarded £5.7 million to establish a grant scheme for small and medium business including in the Aire Valley Enterprise Zone.
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Northamptonshire Enterprise Partnership and South East Midlands LEP: Awarded £4 million to support medium and large sized companies in the area. Direct focus on high performance technology will support the Enterprise Zone in the area to attract investment in the high performance engineering sector.
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Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council: Awarded £5 million to establish a grant programme to support local medium and large companies, benefiting the Lancashire BAE Enterprise Zone by developing supply chain.
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Greater Manchester Combined Authority: Awarded £10 million to promote science and innovation activity, including helping university and hospital spin-offs and small and medium businesses to establish themselves in the area which includes the Airport City Enterprise Zone.
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Sunderland City Council: Awarded £12 million to improve roads around Nissan, the Port and Enterprise Zone, opening up the Enterprise Zone for investment and enabling the creation of a new National Advanced Manufacturing park. It also supports the Port to host more offshore and marine engineering activity and connects these 2 hubs through the city centre.
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East Riding of Yorkshire: Awarded £18 million to develop the site next to the potential Siemens offshore wind turbine facility for suppliers.
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Leicester City Council: Awarded £10 million to provide capital investment grants to businesses in the local enterprise partnership area, including the Enterprise Zone.
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Sheffield City Region: Awarded £25 million to support small and medium businesses with limited access to other funding across the Sheffield City region.
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Suffolk County Council: Awarded £12 million to fund the Growing Business Fund that offers grants to accelerate small and medium business expansion in key sectors.
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Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council: Awarded £5 million to fund shovel-ready projects in the Black Country’s priority sectors which include advanced manufacturing and environmental building technologies, a key focus of the Enterprise Zone.
3) Enterprise zones will benefit from the £154 million in local infrastructure (this includes £59 million in Local Infrastructure Fund, £49 million from the HCA’s Economic Asset Programme and a further £50 million for the Local Infrastructure Fund reserve list announced in the Spending Round), which will transform shovel ready sites into job ready sites, as well as £35 million of Pinch Point funding and £100 million announced in the last Spending Review. A further £445 million through the Regional Growth Fund 4 rounds provides funding to enterprise zones and the local enterprise partnerships which support them.
4) Further support may also be available through a £2 billion funding pot for local enterprise partnerships. This fund will drive job creation and investment forward within local enterprise areas, and includes £1 billion for transport and £500 million for skills and training. The funding builds on the billions of pounds already invested, and includes £400 million from the New Homes Bonus, locally pooled to support housing and local growth.
5) The benefits to business of enterprise zones is that they are good on taxation, planning restrictions and IT capacity - the 3 things most often cited as new business deterrents.
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significant tax breaks – full business rate relief for five years, worth £250,000;
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smart and simple planning rules with automatic green lights for particular businesses mean fast-track development and rapid start-up potential;
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infrastructure designed with business in mind: excellent transport links and superfast broadband for global business too;
6) Additional enterprise zone benefits for business include:
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Britain now has the lowest corporation tax in the G7;
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Each zone was carefully located in a major business cities or place set to become commercial or hi-tech business hubs;
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Each zone has a specific focus so potential customers and suppliers can easily see where like-minded businesses, supply chains and workforce expertise are;
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Local councils are committed through new financial incentives from the government;
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‘Soft landing’ packages with pre-agreed developer deals, accountants or estate agents make it even easier to set up a business.
7) Examples of progress:
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A recent Deloitte report described Bristol Zone as a “magnet for investment” with the “enterprise zone at the heart of this growth”.
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Sheffield and Birmingham were recently listed in the top 50 global enterprise zones.
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Royal Docks just announced a £1 billion deal with a Chinese investor to build a 3.2 million square feet state-of-the-art business park for Chinese and far East businesses.
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Ashok Leyland, India’s second largest commercial vehicle manufacturer recently announced that they will be opening a research and development centre at MIRA Technology Park in Leicester’s Enterprise Zone.
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Northampton, home of the Waterside Enterprise Zone, was recently cited as making the best economic recovery in the UK by the Centre for Cities. Only in May, Freefoam Building Products announced that over 40 jobs will be created as the company expands in the Enterprise Zone.
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Renewable energy company, Estover Energy, has announced plans to develop a £65 million biomass plant at Discovery Park Enterprise Zone that will supply renewable heat and electricity and create 160 jobs.
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Vantec, the Japanese logistics firm completed their new logistics centre at the North East Enterprise Zone at the start of February and expect to more than double employment (to 230) on the site.
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Manchester’s Airport City Enterprise Zone has outline planning permission for the development of a £100 million World Logistics Hub that will generate more than 1,800 new jobs over the next decade – in addition to construction jobs.
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Go to additional information on Enterprise Zones