Council backs Development Corporation with £1.5m funding

Nottinghamshire County Council is backing ambitious plans for the formation of a Development Corporation to help secure Government and private investment vital for job creation and recovery from the pandemic.

The proposed East Midlands Development Corporation has been brought forward thanks to a partnership of local authorities across the region, supported by businesses, universities and other leading bodies. Robert Jenrick, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government has also backed the proposals.

It aims to create major regeneration around Ratcliffe on Soar and East Midlands Airport as well as in Toton and Chilwell. The plans are estimated to create 84,000 jobs and add £4.8bn to the regional economy every year.

Councillors at Nottinghamshire County Council’s Policy Committee on Wednesday (9 December) gave the go-ahead to contribute £1.5m to the new Development Corporation over the next three years. This funding forms part of the overall £4.5m contribution from the council areas where the developments are located.

Plans also include a new National Skills Academy, which will focus on the economy’s future training/retraining needs as well as a new community built on the soon to be decommissioned Chetwynd Barracks; new green spaces and parks; repurposing Ratcliffe on Soar into a global centre for net zero carbon technologies and better local and regional transport services.

Councillor Kay Cutts MBE, Leader of Nottinghamshire County Council and Chairman of the Policy Committee said: “I’m proud of the way Nottinghamshire has come together with council leaders, universities and business from across the East Midlands to show we are serious about our ambitions to work together and recover from the pandemic. Significantly, it also has the support of the Secretary of State, Robert Jenrick.

“These plans will generate the jobs and skills people desperately need in Nottinghamshire and throughout the region, providing new opportunities for businesses – and their supply chain – to grow now and for future generations.

“We are asking the Government to invest in our communities as we have built a vision to attract inward investors from all over the world – for every £1 invested we will deliver £2 back.

“We have seen the transformation driven by the Olympic Park in London and in Salford Quays. It is now our time for investment. For far too long the East Midlands have been overlooked by successive governments.

“Our location in the heart of Britain makes us the perfect place to prove that ‘levelling up’ is more than a headline”