£426m investment bid by D2N2 to boost economy and jobs

A £426m capital investment programme – set to create an estimated 12,910 new jobs – is being bid for by the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), to boost the economy.

D2N2  previously received £192m in Local Growth Fund (LGF) monies from Government. This is being invested in infrastructure – transport routes, centres for business, skills facilities, faster broadband access, etc – to help support economic growth and businesses’ development.

Of the £192m LGF funding D2N2 received, in 2015/16 alone £39m was invested in 14 projects across the LEP’s area. Regional contractors have benefited from this, with almost two-thirds (64%) of those contracts going to companies located within 20 miles of the D2N2 area.

Now D2N2 is to submit a bid for a further £107m, from the Government’s ‘Local Growth Fund 3’ allocation; a £1.8bn national fund opened to bids from England’s 39 Local Enterprise Partnerships in March (2016). Details of D2N2’s bid were revealed at its 2016 Annual Conference and AGM today (July 26), held at Vision West Nottinghamshire College’s main Mansfield campus.

If successful D2N2 would use its £107m in LGF 3 money to lever in an additional £318million worth of private and public sector investment – creating a total package of around £426m to support 23 vital projects across its area.

In total, it’s estimated this £426m funding ‘package’ could generate:
· 12,910 new jobs
· 1,705 new homes
· 7,015 learners in skills and training centres
over the course of the 23 projects’ different lifetimes (which will range in length from a few years to 20 years) .

The Local Growth Fund 3 projects submitted by D2N2 are:

On city and town centre renewal –

· Town centres package – Grant fund for Nottinghamshire town centres, to be matched by private sector investment, to finance renewal and redevelopment activities, and sustainable transport projects. (LGF 3 bid – £10m, match funding – £12m, and benefits expected – 563 jobs).
· World Heritage Site Regeneration – Renovation of the Derby Silk Mill on Derby’s riverside to create a new national museum and visitor attraction, plus small and start-up business workshops. (LGF 3 bid – £3.7m, match funding – £12.8m, and benefits – 110 jobs).
· Nottingham Castle – Improving access and upgrading facilities for major East Midlands’ tourist attraction. (LGF3 bid – £5.5m, match funding – £18.5m, benefits – 1,950 jobs).
· Masterplan Phase 1: City Gateway – New multi-purpose 3,000 capacity venue in Derby city Centre on former Assembly Rooms site, to provide theatre space and conference facilities. (LGF 3 bid – £8m, match funding – £2m, benefits – 171 jobs).
· Southern Gateway – This part of the regeneration programme for the southern entry to Nottingham city will develop retail units, an improved car park and public spaces. (LGF 3 bid – £15m, match funding – £10.3m, benefits – 600 jobs).

On creating infrastructure to enable private sector development –

· Sherwood Visitor Centre – New visitor centre, cafe, retail outlet and recreational space including cycle hub for Sherwood Forest. (LGF 3 bid – £800,000, match funding – £4.5m, benefits – ten jobs).
· Coalite Works site regeneration – Site-wide remediation to develop a commercial business park and residential development, at the site near Bolsover, Derbyshire. (LGF 3 bid – £7.9m, match funding – £13.4m, benefits – 1,480 jobs and 800 homes).
· Woodville-Swadlincote Regeneration Route – A new A511 road link to ‘unlock’ access to brownfield land at Tollgate Park, at South Derbyshire site. (LGF 3 bid – £6.4m, match funding – £69.3m, benefits – 3,100 jobs and 300 homes).
· Housing Zone:Urban Village – Land assembly works and providing new infrastructure to develop 12 hectares of brownfield regeneration land at Castleward Derby, for homes and businesses. (LGF 3 bid – £6.6m, match funding – £73m, benefits – 380 jobs and 600 homes).
· Vesuvius Works site – Infrastructure works to ‘unlock’ a potential £38million private sector-led redevelopment of the former Vesuvius Works site at Worksop; for employment, retail, leisure uses, and space for industrial and manufacturing businesses. (LGF 3 bid – £5.5m, match funding – £38.4m, benefits – 900 jobs).
· Sherwood Energy Village – Speculative development of 3,000 sq m of industrial floorspace in ten units. (LGF 3 bid – £800,000, match funding – £3m, benefits – 64 jobs).
· Riverside Business Park, Bakewell – A three hectare brownfield scheme to access infrastructure and flood alleviation works, to enable development of new commercial buildings. (LGF 3 – £3.9m, match funding – £3.9m, benefits – 300 jobs).
· Foundry Park – Refurbishment of former Stanton Ironworks at Stanton-by-Dale, Ilkeston, to create employment space, access roads and car parking. (LGF 3 bid – £4.2m, match funding – £9.2m, benefits – 700 jobs).
· D2N2 Sustainable Transport Phase Two – Building on D2N2’s success to date, this would be further investment in sustainable transport networks around Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, with particular attention to linking to the future proposed HS2 high speed line. (LGF 3 bid – £4m, match funding – £5m).
· HS2 strategic sites – Funding towards acquiring key sites which will benefit from development of the HS2 rail network, including around proposed maintenance depot site at Staveley, Derbyshire. (LGF 3 bid – £3.5m, benefits – 500 jobs).

On innovation-led growth –

· Connect Business Growth Hub – Transforming this 1.9 acre site into a 3,000 square metre site for business growth. (Funding requested from Local Growth Fund 3 – £2.9million, match funding expected – £4.4m, and benefits expected – creation of 390 jobs).
· MediCity Incubation – Refurbish existing building on Boots site within the Nottingham & Derby Enterprise Zone, to provide 65,000 square feet of business incubation for new health and beauty market firms, to promote innovation and new product development. (LGF 3 bid – £1.9m, match funding – £1.1m, benefits – 350 jobs).
· Rail Innovation Centre, Derby – New centre supporting growth of supply chain businesses in rail sector. (LGF 3 bid – £900,000, match funding – £400,000).
· Nottingham Trent University Convergent Science Technology Centre – 1,600 square metre medical devices and advanced materials technology centre –based at the Boots Enterprise Zone site and NTU’s Clifton Campus – to facilitate healthcare product development and attract global companies. (LGF 3 bid – £7.2m, match funding – £10.4m, benefits – 1,050 jobs).

On employment and skills –

· Confetti Creative Quarter – Digital and creative skills training facility, delivering learning in an aspirational and enterprising way in Nottingham. (LGF 3 bid – £2.8m, match funding – £5m, benefits – 5,500 learners).
· Institute of Technology, Pride Park, Derby – Creation of an Institute of Technology for Engineering and a Centre for Professional Construction, to support sectors’ higher level skills development and apprenticeships. (LGF 3 bid – £1.3m, match funding – £800,000, benefits – 250 jobs).
· CEATA (Canal Engineering Accredited Training Academy) Canal Engineering –Delivery of engineering courses at bespoke centre, at Lenton Lane Industrial Estate, Nottingham. (LGF 3 bid – £300,000, match funding – £600,000, benefits – 500 learners).
· Brackenhurst Skills Centre – New centre for food, agriculture and horticulture skills training at Nottingham Trent University’s Brackenhurst campus, Southwell. (LGF 3 bid – £1.4m, match funding – £4m, benefits – 1,050 learners and 700 jobs).

D2N2’s list of 23 initiatives – with their supporting evidence and business plans – will be submitted to the Government. It will assess the strength of the various project bids from all of England’s Local Enterprise Partnerships.

D2N2 and its fellow LEPs are set to discover how many of their LGF 3 project bids have been successful, and the funding they will receive, in the Chancellor’s 2016 Autumn Statement in late November or early December.

Peter Richardson, chairman of the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “We are making a major bid for financing from the Government’s Local Growth Fund 3 because we have major ambitions for the D2N2 LEP area.

“Our current LGF allocation, of £192m, has already been invested in a wide range of projects, including £12m for Derby’s Our City, Our River’ project and £6.5m towards the £30m BioCity Nottingham extension; aiding key sectors and providing local contractors with access to millions of pounds worth of contract work. But there is a lot more we need to do to provide vital infrastructure, to aid economic growth.

“The new LGF 3 bids we have made would give our area access to a £426m investment programme, with the power to create an estimated 12,910 new jobs. D2N2 has an excellent track record for spending wisely and well, and I am confident that Government will give serious consideration to our plans.”