East Midlands Fastest Growing Economy As Nottingham Leads The Way
The RBS Regional Growth Tracker today named the East Midlands as the fastest growing regional economy, ahead of London, the North West and West Midlands.
The East Midlands grew by an estimated 1% in Q1 2014, above the UK-wide figure of 0.8%, with 3.75% more output than this time last year.
Nottinghamshire’s conurbations of Nottingham city, north, south and west accounted for a growth of 12.9%.
As the only Core City in the region, the ongoing success of Nottingham City Council’s ten year Growth Plan – launched in July 2012 – which includes a range of measures to cut unemployment, bring in massive investment and revitalise city businesses, is contributing significantly to the growth in the region.
Councillor Jon Collins, Leader, Nottingham City Council, said: “We welcome this news that confirms that Nottingham and the East Midlands are growing faster than other areas of the UK. In the city, we’ve taken a proactive approach to supporting Nottingham businesses through our Growth Plan – including access to £51m of finance, practical support with training and recruitment for staff, and business support services. We’ve aimed to ensure that the growth benefits local people through creation of jobs and Apprenticeships, and we’ve focused on improving the infrastructure and connectivity of Nottingham. All of this has made our city a great place to do business – and we’ll continue to focus on these key factors to sustain the growth we’re now seeing.”
Underpinned by £60 million of City Deal cash, the Nottingham Growth Plan has made finance worth over £50 million available for businesses, with the potential to lever in a further £80 million.
Achievements since the Growth Plan launched include:
- £51m business finance secured
- Nottingham among top 10 cities to create the most jobs since 2010
- £570m expansion of the tram network
- £50m Nottingham hub station redevelopment
- £64m of funding secured for regeneration projects
- Nottingham is now number one target for graduate employers
- Launch of the Apprenticeships Hub with 755 places already secured
Key Nottingham Growth Plan initiatives include:
- Creative Quarter – a hub of start-up businesses and independent retail is home to clusters of tech-based companies in Nottingham’s growth sectors of life sciences and digital content.
- £10m Nottingham Technology (N’Tech) Grant Fund
- Foresight Nottingham Investment Fund
- Creative Quarter Loan Fund
- Growth 100 Programme
- Next Business Generation
A range of equity grant and loan finance is in place for both start-up and growth business.
These are focussed at life sciences, digital operations and clean technology sectors including the Nottingham Technology (N’Tech) Grant Fund and the Foresight Nottingham Investment Fund.
Council-run programmes have driven employment in the private sector including through the city’s Apprenticeship Hub. The Hub has created 755 Apprenticeships to date and is ahead of its target to increase the number of opportunities available to young people living in Nottingham by creating 1,000 new Apprenticeships by March 2015. Nottingham has seen a substantial rise in the number of Apprenticeships far ahead of the national average in every age group. This includes figures of [14.6] per cent above the national average for those aged 16-18 and [23.7] per cent above average for 19-24 year olds.
Other new investment in the city includes £190 million of planned work to boost the retail sector through major improvements at the key intu owned Broadmarsh and Victoria shopping centres. intu has signed a deal clearing the way for a £150 million redevelopment at the Broadmarsh Centre, with work likely to start late next year. The new scheme will see new shops, restaurants and a cinema open in an extended and remodelled version of the existing structure at the same time the road network around the centre would be drastically altered, new pedestrianised areas and traffic re-routed. International architect Benoy – which redesigned Birmingham’s Bullring – has been working on designs for the Broadmarsh. A £40 million refurbishment of Victoria Centre is already underway.
Nottingham also leads the country at graduate level. According to the latest study by High Fliers Research, The University of Nottingham is the number one choice among the UK's top graduate employers. The report is based on research conducted during December 2013 with the UK's 100 leading graduate employers including BP, the Civil Service, IBM, Goldman Sachs, PwC, Google and HSBC.
Nottingham’s £570 million expansion to its tram network alone has created an estimated 1,000 jobs. The new line – supporting the existing tram line, will serve 20 of the 30 largest employers in Greater Nottingham and carry around 23 million passengers a year and it has been estimated it will help to boost the local economy by up to £300 million a year and be key in the creation of up to 8,000 local jobs.
Business Success Stories
Some of the businesses in Nottingham adding to local growth include Global Fire Systems Limited, Sym-Wall Building Technologies and Sygnature Discovery.
Global Fire Systems, an ambitious Nottingham firm with clients as far and wide as Abu Dhabi and Beijing has just announced significant investment in the business. Thanks to a funding injection of £390,000 from the N’Tech fund, Global Fire Systems is set to create 100 jobs and train 10 apprentices in Nottingham and is already recruiting. With its Head Offices in Nottingham and regional offices in London and Scotland, Global Fire Systems designs, supplies, installs and maintains fire detection, voice evacuation alarm, disabled alarm, fire telephone, intruder alarm, CCTV, access control and fire suppression systems. International client base now includes Harrods, O2 Arena, Olympic Stadium, The Savoy, The Shard, Royal Household Residences and services within all UK Airports. Internationally the company has delivered specialist projects in the Ascension Island, Shetland Island, Abu Dhabi, The Olympic Games in Beijing and The Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Established in 1999, Global Fire Systems currently employs 150 people across three offices in Nottingham and one in Canary Wharf plus field engineers across the country. Its headquarters is based at the NG2 Business Park. In addition to its high profile clients, the company also works with hospitals, banks, shopping centres, high-rise office blocks, hotels, sporting stadiums and universities, with contracts ranging from £5,000 to £3million.
Sym-Wall Building technologies creates panels made from a synthetic waste form of gypsum (recycled material taken from coal fired power stations) and has the potential to ultimately transform construction methods around the world. Sym-Wall Building Technologies was awarded a £75,000 grant from the Nottingham Technology Grant Fund (N’Tech) and this has helped bring Sym-Wall to market.
Sygnature Discovery helps biotech and pharmaceutical companies to be more flexible and efficient in carrying out drug discovery research. The company’s role is to carry out research to identify compounds that have the potential to be the next generation of medicines. It takes an average of ten years and over £0.5billion to launch a new drug, so any research that can help reduce the time and cost is invaluable. Sygnature adds considerable value to clients’ projects by providing substantial intellectual input during key elements of the drug discovery process.
Dr Simon Hirst, founder and CEO, has doubled the size of the company in terms of employees and turnover in a remarkably short space of time. Sygnature now employs 90 staff and has a turnover of around £7.4million today.
So far the company has identified 11 compounds on behalf of clients, which have progressed into development. Three are in human clinical trials, with the most advanced being in phase 2, meaning it is being given to a relatively large group of patients, typically 100-300. This last compound has the potential to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which is an extremely serious respiratory disease and a $billion market.
Sygnature was launched in 2004 and within a month had a laboratory at BioCity Nottingham. Dr Hirst considered innovation parks in other cities, but none offered the available laboratory space and the business support available at BioCity. In addition, the quality of local expertise and the cost of living in Nottingham made it the obvious choice.
ENDS
For further information please contact Heather Price or Isabel Jones at the Nottingham Growth Plan Press Office on 0115 958 8850 email growingnottingham@edenpr.co.uk
The Nottingham Growth Plan set out an ambitious and long term strategy for economic development and job creation to reinvigorate the city’s fortunes over the next decade.
The Nottingham Growth Plan set out a series of measures for driving the city’s economy forward. It is the fruit of a collaboration between some of the city’s key public and private sector organisations, based on solid academic research, good business sense and valuable consultation. It is ambitious but achievable and holds the key to creating significant growth across Nottingham – unleashing enterprise that will bring benefits for generations to come. www.nottinghamgrowthplan.com
The strategic focus of the Growth Plan is on developing industries where the city already has a competitive advantage. These three key sectors include; life sciences, digital content and clean technology. To ensure businesses flourish, the Growth Plan will also target areas where there are significant barriers to growth by supporting enterprise, the development of a skilled workforce and building a 21st century infrastructure.