Coventry’s ‘boring’ transformation creating the foundations for growth

Coventry City Council chief executive Martin Reeves has challenged people to “look at the boring stuff” to see how rapidly the city is changing.

Speaking at a TheBusinessDesk.com panel event in Coventry, held in association with law firm Band Hatton Button, he emphasised the importance of what is happening literally under the surface across the city as part of a capital programme worth a quarter of a billion pounds.

“What’s happening now, and has happened over the last five years in particular, our delivery of physical infrastructure particularly in the city centre is, compared with what’s happened in the past, in my view a different world,” said Reeves.

“That’s really, really important. What’s even more important – and I genuinely mean this – is the physical build you do not see above ground level.”

Business leaders and professionals were gathered at the new UK headquarters of manufacturer FANUC UK. Its 107,000 sq ft development at Ansty Park is the latest addition to the business technology park, which has created a hub of leading businesses at the junction of the M6 and M69.

Reeves, who has led the city council since 2009, said: “If you speak to people here at FANUC and around this park, and as you drive away just look at the boring stuff.

“We were involved in this way back, just before I arrived. The infrastructure, the road layouts to be able to handle not just the existing capacity that was on Ansty but also the vision of what this could look like, was phenomenal.

“There was a huge amount of criticism that came about over-egging the infrastructure, the boring stuff to get the road layouts right. But that was an amazingly visionary decision – if we had bottlenecked this site, we wouldn’t be sitting here now.”

Coventry City Council has got a capital programme worth £250m in place this year and next, despite the significant cuts to its revenue spending power.

“If we come here in a year’s time, we will be almost there as the most gigabit-connected, fibre-connected city with 5G potential in the whole of the UK. Boring, can’t see it.

“The Heatline, boring, in terms of how deep you have to excavate. The Heatline is an opportunity to provide carbon-neutral heating into a whole city centre real estate, potentially.

“We’ve got some amazing stuff coming out the ground and just look at cranes. We’ve got amazing diggers on the ground, but what’s underneath it gives us the potential to grow and to grow in the areas that we know, particularly around digital and connectivity.

“That’s not seen, that doesn’t make the headlines. If you don’t have it again, you’re in real trouble in terms of an investable place.”

 

Click here to sign up to receive our new South West business news...
Close