Successful business engagement adds up to Infinity
TheBusinessDesk.com and EY have produced a Midlands Engine report, assessing the challenges and opportunities facing the region as it looks to maximise the positive impact of devolution. Read the full report here.
A BUSINESS park with Enterprise Zone status is leading the way on how business can help shape regional economic development.
Infinity Park Derby is a 100-acre development to the south of the city that is intended to create thousands of jobs in the high-tech sector. It is located next to the world headquarters of Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace and close to key manufacturing sites, including Toyota, Bombardier and JCB.
It was officially launched in July and the IHub welcomed its first tenants shortly afterwards. It will also be home to the £11.8m Centre for Supply Chain Innovation in Transport Engineering, a collaboration between Universities to provide access to cutting edge research and technology transfer to supply chain companies in the aerospace, automotive and rail sectors.
The park is a joint venture between Derby City Council, the Harpur Crewe Estate, Rolls-Royce and developers Cedar House, Wilson Bowden and Peveril Securities.
Marketing Derby’s John Forkin highlighted the network of companies and organisations which have worked together to create tangible outputs.
“In Derby we have the Derby Renaissance Board, which effectively holds the ring for the economic development of the Greater Derby area,” he said. “Sitting on that is Rolls-Royce, Bombardier, Toyota, the big employers, the city leadership, the university, and so on.
“One of the products that came out of that is an example of a public-private partnership which is Infinity Park Derby.
“That then acts as a lobby, and through the Renaissance board we had a meeting with the Transport Secretary a couple of weeks ago, for the types of infrastructure investments that are required to open it up further in terms of employment land and housing.
“We are going to get a new roundabout on to the A50, south of Derby. To me that’s an example of when it’s working right.
“Businesses like Rolls-Royce have access to Government that we simply don’t have, so if they are engaged – and it doesn’t have to be on committees and structures, but if they are engaged in the strategy, and helping shape the strategy – then they have got the ear of Government and can get to Government where local government or the mayor or whoever can’t get.
“If you are joining up your message and identifying your priorities, then at a local level things can happen.”
