Marches LEP bids for three-pronged Enterprise Zone
A SUBMISSION for a single Enterprise Zone covering three areas of the West Midlands is to be submitted to Government.
The Marches Local Enterprise Partnership is hoping the creation of a zone spanning parts of Shrewsbury, Telford and Hereford will generate around 18,500 new jobs.
Marches LEP comprises businesses and local authority leaders in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and Herefordshire, and is bidding for one of the 10 available EZs promised by Chancellor George Osborne in Budget in March.
The LEP says the zone would cover 175 hectares of land encapsulating Telford Technology Park, Hereford Rotherwas Park and areas to the north, west and south of Shrewsbury – what the LEP is calling the ‘Shrewsbury Arc’.
The site would also create around 544,000 sq metres of new business floor space, the LEP said.
The announcement comes shortly after Worcestershire LEP announced it was bidding for an EZ in Kidderminster.
Marches LEP chairman Dr Geoffrey Davies said a single site zone would fail to maximise potential business opportunities because of the rural nature of the region.
“As one of the first wave of successful LEPs, we wish to seize this opportunity, having been unsuccessful in the first round of Regional Growth Fund bids,” he said.
“This proposal will be the backbone of our second round bids, a unique approach to an Enterprise Zone but one which we believe will benefit our rural economy, which operates very differently to those in large cities.
“The Marches model addresses the unique barriers that the rural nature of the locality presents to business investors.”
