Enterprise Zones: Merseyside news ‘fantastic’ says Peel boss

DEVELOPMENTS spanning more than 30 million square feet and changing the face of Merseyside over the next three decades will benefit from special tax incentives and planning rules.

Mersey Waters – Peel Group’s planned schemes at Birkenhead and across the water in Liverpool – has been chosen by the Government as one of the first new generation Enterprise Zones.

The landmark schemes involve both local authorities, Wirral Borough Council and Liverpool City Council, and Peel Group, the Manchester-based property giant.

The Enterprise Zone will be created around Peel Group’s proposed 17m sq ft Wirral Waters and 14m sq ft Liverpool Waters developments.

Peel Land and Property director Lindsay Ashworth told TheBusinessDesk.com: “This is fantastic news – anything that gives us a leg up and helps encourage international business into the UK is good news.

“We have had Enterprise Zones before – look at the transformation of Salford Quays – but these are slightly different. These locations are deprived and the Government has clearly recognised they need extra help.”

Mr Ashworth said he hoped the Liverpool Enterprise Zone would ease the passage of the Liverpool Waters planning application through the system.

“It would be bizarre if having set up the Enterprise Zone on one hand, the Government Office calls it in for a public inquiry on the other. Public inquiries are so expensive these days, it would probably kill the scheme.”

Council bosses also hailed positive engagement with the Government as they reacted to the news.

Liverpool city-region cabinet chair, Cllr Joe Anderson, said: “We are keen to work with government to make sure the benefits are shared across the whole of the city-region, and help attract much needed investment and jobs to the entire area.

“The city-region has big ambitions and a clear strategy to grow the economy and increase private sector jobs and investment which have clearly caught the attention of the government.

“Just last week Business Minister Mark Prisk told me how impressed he is by what we have to offer.”

Wirral Borough Council Leader Cllr Jeff Green said the announcement represented “the culmination of discussions that I began in January with the Prime Minister and hard work carried out by Wirral, Peel Holdings and Liverpool City Council”.

“Wirral Waters is already an attractive investment opportunity but its designation as an Enterprise Zone will allow us to offer tax incentives which will give businesses locating on the site a great head start.”

Like the Airport City project in Greater Manchester, the Merseyside Enterprise Zone will be able to lure inward investment with advantageous tax rates.

Companies investing in the zones, and the authorities administering them will benefit in a number of ways. All Enterprise Zones will benefit from:

• Business rate discounts worth up to £275,000 per eligible business over a five year period
• All business rates growth within the zone for a period of at least 25 years will be shared and retained by the local area, to support the Partnership’s economic priorities and ensure that Enterprise Zone growth is reinvested locally;
• Government help to develop radically simplified planning approaches for the zone using, for example, existing local powers to grant automatic planning permission;
• Government support to ensure that superfast broadband is rolled out throughout the zone, achieved through guaranteeing the most supportive regulatory environment and, if necessary, public funding.
 
The Government said it would also  work with Local Enterprise Partnerships on additional options, possiblye including: enhanced capital allowances (instead of business rate discounts) for plant and machinery; using Tax Increment Finance to support the long term viability of the area and also usiing UKTI support for inward investment or trade opportunities in the zone.