Enterprise Zone Watch #3

Tomorrow's deadline for submitting enterprise zone bids is almost upon us, so this will be the final installment of Enterprise Zone Watch.

Over the past week, there's been a flurry of bidding activity from LEPs hoping to get one of 10 second-wave enterprise zones, while those LEPs that were selected to have one of the 11 first-wave enterprise zones have also been busy finalising their proposals for where they'd like their zone to be located.

The Government is expected to announce the successful zones by the end of July, and which LEPs stand the strongest chance of getting one is, so far, anybody's guess. There's been a huge variety of bids: one LEP - Tees Valley Unlimited - has included 24 sites in their proposals for a zone - while the Sheffield City Region LEP wants four sites to be included in one zone and others are focussing on just one.

In the meantime, look out for my story in this Friday's issue of Planning magazine, which gives a further update on the types of zones LEPs are bidding for.

- East Sussex, Essex, Kent, Medway, Southend and Thurrock (ESEKMST) LEP has put forward two possible sites for an enterprise zone. Its first preference site is the Discovery Park in Sandwich, Kent, an existing business park with a focus on pharmaceutical, cleantech and research and development businesses. The second preference site is Enterprise West Essex at Harlow, a mixed-use development site that includes the former home of telecoms firm Nortel.

- South East Midlands LEP has selected Northampton Waterside for an enterprise zone. The site, situarted alongside the River Nene, is expected to create 14,000 new jobs and hundreds of new businesses in the town, the LEP says, and it would focus on high performance engineering.

- The Humber LEP wants its zone to cover three separate sites south of the River Humber: Green Port Hull and Alexandra Dock; Queen Elizabeth Dock; and Able Marine Energy Park site in North Lincolnshire. The zone would focus on attracting top-tier manufacturing firms in the renewable energy industry.

- Oxfordshire LEP wants the county's Science Vale to become a zone. The area includes the Milton Park Business Park and the Harwell science campus. The zone would focus on boosting the high tech business clusters in the local area, according to press reports.

- Greater Cambridgeshire and Greater Peterborough LEP are submitting a bid for Alconbury Airfield to become an enterprise zone, according to reports. The LEP wants part of the disused airfield to become a business park and the zone would reportedly cover 150ha of the 575ha site.

- Tees Valley LEP (Tees Valley Unlimited) has submitted proposals for a bumper zone spanning 24 different sites across the Tees Valley, including at Middlesbrough, Stockton, Redcar and Cleveland and Billingham. See our story here for the full list of sites.

- The Coast to Capital LEP, meanwhile, has dropped two out of three sites that it initially put forward for an enterprise zone, after the Government instructed it to choose just one. Its revised bid now includes plans for a zone in Bognor Regis, including sites at Oldlands Farm, the Salt Box and the former LEC airfield with potential for 7,500 new jobs.

The Government's recommendation to the Coast to Capital LEP is somewhat confusing given that communities secretary Eric Pickles reportedly hailed the Tees Valley's bid for multiple sites to become a zone as "brave and exciting".

- The Leeds City Region LEP has selected Aire Valley for an enterprise zone.

The coalition's U-turns on regeneration

The last two weeks have seen the coalition Government carry out a series of screeching U-turns. This week’s policy reversal on prison sentences followed last week’s backtracking on controversial NHS reforms and communities secretary Eric Pickles’ announcement that he was binning a pledge to reinstate weekly rubbish collections from homes. But it’s not just in the high-profile policy areas of justice, health and bin collections that the coalition Government has abruptly changed direction. Here are some regeneration-related U-turns implemented since last year’s election.

‘Shadow’ mayors

The coalition Government’s policy on directly elected mayors – in particular on whether mayors should be installed before or after referendums take place – has been beset by a series of U-turns. At last year’s Conservative Party conference, local government minister Bob Neill said that the public would not be given the opportunity to vote on whether they want elected mayors in the 12 largest cities outside London until after the mayors have been installed. But, later in the same month, communities secretary Eric Pickles said that it was “completely out of the question” that mayors could be installed before allowing members of the public to vote on whether they want them.

However, in December 2010, the Localism Bill revealed that the council leaders in the 12 English cities would become “shadow mayors” before referendums are held in those cities to decide whether they will be run by directly elected mayors. Now, in a fresh twist, government amendments to the Localism Bill, tabled earlier this week, would scrap plans to create shadow mayors in the 12 cities.

LEP funding

The funding arrangements (or lack of them) for the council and business-led local enterprise partnerships that are replacing the regional development agencies have long been a thorny issue for the coalition. In July last year, the coalition Government withdrew a stipulation that the LEPs would have to fund their own day-to-day running costs (this stipulation had appeared in a version of a letter from ministers that was subsequently withdrawn). Later in 2010, the local growth white paper revealed that LEPs would – as was widely expected – have to fund their own day-to-day running costs.

But earlier this year, the Government backtracked on its refusal to provide central funding for LEPs’ day-to-day running costs. A £5 million fund, announced last month, can be spent by LEPs on training, staff salaries, business engagement and office rent and equipment.

RDA abolition

Labour’s flagship RDAs are being replaced by LEPs, with the winding up process due to be completed by March 2012. But it did not always look certain that all of the RDAs would be abolished. In June last year, business secretary Vince Cable said that the RDAs in the North of England would “continue in pretty much the way the did before” under the new coalition government. And in the same week, during his first Commons question time as Prime Minister, David Cameron said: "On RDAs, what we have said is that in areas of the country where they work well and where local authorities want to keep them as they are, they can."

Community infrastructure levy

In opposition, the Conservative Party promised to abolish the community infrastructure levy (CIL) - a tax on development that is intended to raise funds for infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and transport links. The party's Open Source Planning paper, published at the beginning of 2010, had said that the levy was "unnecessarily complicated" and said that, if elected, the Tories would instead introduce a "single unified tariff". But in November 2010, decentralisation minister Greg Clark surprised the sector by announcing that the levy would be retained, albeit with reforms to ensure funds from the tariff are passed directly to local neighbourhoods.

Enterprise Zone Watch #2

The second installment of Regeneration & Renewal's 'EZ Watch' contains more news of council and business-led local enterprise partnerships' plans for enterprise zones within their boundaries.

LEPs have until the end of this month to submit bids to Government. Excluding the four 'vanguard' zones that were confirmed by George Osborne in the Budget, sites in just 17 LEP areas will be designated zones once the Government completes its assessment process at the end of the summer.
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Enterprise Zone Watch #1

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Here is a summary of the latest plans:

- Coventry and Warwickshire LEP has earmarked a planned development site between Coventry Airport and the Tollbar A45 junction. This is land intended for development as part of a major expansion of the airport. The LEP estimates the zone could create up to 10,000 new jobs

- Marches LEP is submitting a bid for an enterprise zone at Rotherwas Park, a 16.2ha site earmarked for development of a private sector business park focused on advanced engineering and the growing cluster of defense-related businesses in the area.

- West of England LEP has chosen Bristol's Temple Quay area, a 29.5ha site to the north and east of Bristol’s Temple Meads rail station. Bristol is one of the seven LEP areas that the coalition said earlier this year would definitely have a zone, but the LEP is awaiting ministerial approval of its selection. The zone is intended to focus on attracting creative and hi-tech businesses.

- The Black Country LEP is working on a bid for a zone that is split among five sites in each of the four local authorities partners in the LEP: Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton. One of these would be the Waterfront office complex near Merry Hil, which has a high proportion of empty office space, according to a report in the local press.

- Solent LEP is putting together a bid for a site at the Daedalus Airfield in Gosport to become an enterprise zone. Business minister Mark Prisk visited the site earlier this week.

The time for TIF 'is now'

The coalition Government’s flagship legislation to empower local communities is to get its second reading in the House of Lords today. But for one senior property industry figure, the Localism Bill as it stands is missing one vital element: legislation that could pave the way to enable tax increment financing.

Peter Cosmetatos is director of policy (finance) at the British Property Federation and part of a Whitehall working group examining TIF, a funding tool that would allow councils to borrow money for infrastructure against the additional business rate income that it is expected to generate. Cosmetatos told Planning that it “didn’t make sense” to tie TIF to the Local Government Resource Review, which will conclude its first phase next month and looks likely to allow councils to keep locally-raised business rates.

“I think TIF should be legislated for in the Localism Bill. It should be now,” Cosmetatos told Planning. “The danger is that we’ve seen the LGRR slip by six months, and it could slip another six months. While the LGRR proposals around the retention of business rates might be the cause of that delay – because it’s complicated – why on earth can we not be getting on with a handful of TIF schemes based on some very simple enabling primary legislation that they could just shove into the Localism Bill? [TIF] is part of the localism agenda.”

As Planning reveals in the current issue, the London Borough of Barnet would be well placed to put itself forward as one of those schemes. It is already in the advanced stages of preparing a bid to use TIF to help finance the huge Brent Cross and Cricklewood regeneration scheme (pictured). But Barnet’s director of planning, housing and regeneration, Stewart Murray, conceded that a TIF scheme would be unlikely to be up and running until April 2013 at the earliest, in part because the Treasury’s bidding process still needs to be worked through.

That is too long to wait for Cosmetatos. “Potentially TIF is something that would give a bit more substance to local enterprise partnerships, to enterprise zones. It could give a very practical commercial kickstart to economic activity and investment in infrastructure that at least a handful of areas could benefit from."

The view from Westfield Stratford City

Last month saw the completion of the construction phase of one of the UK’s largest regeneration schemes, east London’s £1.45 billion Westfield Stratford City. On a recent tour of the shopping centre’s John Lewis anchor store, managing director Noel Saunders was surprisingly candid about his company’s goals: “We’re retailers, and we’re a business and we’re here to make money,” he said.

Yet Saunders is well aware that London Borough of Newham mayor Sir Robin Wales will do his upmost not to allow the development, which sits on the edge of the Olympic Park, to become just another concrete shrine to consumerism - even one that includes a 6,000sq metre casino and a 14-screen all-digital cinema. Wales wants jobs, and last month said the Government was “walking away” from its legacy goals on boosting local employment.

'We are a local shop, and with that will be local jobs'
Noel Saunders, managing director of Westfield Stratford City's John Lewis

Some time ago a taskforce established by mayoral economic body the London Development Agency set a target to use the Games to cut London worklessness by 70,000. John Lewis' Saunders says his store, which looks to open on schedule on 13 September, can help put a dent into that figure.

“We are a local shop, and with that will be local jobs,” he says as we walk past the frontage of a store marked ‘Jamie’s Italian’. “On offer will be 750 jobs, with 80 per cent ring-fenced for local people, and 400 for the long-term unemployed residents of Newham.

“John Lewis will be investing £35 million. But it’s not just about the investment – there’s a halo effect as well, in terms of commercial developments, housing and infrastructure. If you’re thinking of buying a new home in an area that’s being regenerated, this is a great place to invest. Five years ago it might not have been the first place on your list – now, it’s very much on the list.”

Wales will no doubt be hoping that the halo effect lasts long into the future.

Watch a slideshow of Westfield Stratford City images

'Enterprise Zone Watch' - #1

With the deadline for submitting enterprise zone bids fast approaching, Regeneration & Renewal thought it timely to compile a list of the plans being submitted by local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) so far.

'EZ Watch' will be a regular installment on the R&R blog, and will be updated over the next few weeks as more news emerges of LEPs' plans.

The Government has already announced the locations of the four 'vanguard' enterprise zones - in London, Manchester, Nottingham and Liverpool. But details of the remaining 17 enterprise zones have yet to be decided and LEPs have until the end of this month to submit their final submissions for a zone within their boundaries.

The coalition will then assess bids throughout July and is expected to announce the successful ones by the end of the summer.

The proposed sites have a common theme: they are existing business parks with undeveloped land close by, and the advanced manufacturing sector is widely identified as the main opportunity for growth.

Here is a summary of plans thus far...

- Coast to Capital LEP: Because the LEP covers a very broad area, it wants to see three main areas included within the zone: the Gatwick Diamond area to the north of Crawley and the south of Gatwick airport, including the 600-acre Manor Royal industrial estate; three areas of Bognor Regis including sites at Oldlands Farm, the Salt Box and the former LEC airfield; a site at Croydon, where the pan-London LEP has already said it wants an enterprise zone to be located.

- the Pan-London LEP has also said it plans to submit a bid for an enterprise zone in Tottenham.

- Worcestershire LEP wants to see the South Kidderminster Business Park and an adjoining 40ha site that has been cleared and is available for development to become an enterprise zone.

- York and North Yorkshire LEP: The proposed zone would cover Scarborough Business Park and a significant portion of undeveloped land adjacent to the park.

- Staffordshire LEP wants to submit a bid for an enterprise zone at Etruria Valley, the former home of the Wedgewood china factory, which is being developed into a major industrial park and an adjoining mixed-use development.

- Sheffield City Region LEP: The LEP wants its zone to incorporate three separate sites across the city-region: the Advanced Manufacturing Park at Waverley, the Sheffield Business Park close to the M1 outside the city, and land at Markham Vale that is currently being developed for the manufacturing and services industries. It also wants development sites west of the Dearne Valley in Barnsley to be included within the zone.

- Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP wants Birmingham city centre to become an enterprise zone. However, because the LEP is one of the largest in the country, it also wants to create an 'enterprise belt' which would cover areas of southern Staffordshire and northern Worcestershire, along with the M42 corridor in Solihull.

In addition, the newly formed Lancashire LEP has said that it plans to submit a bid for an enterprise zone, but has not specified where it wants the zone to be located, while the new Humber LEP, which is awaiting final approval from the Government, has also said it wants to bid for an zone.

Unconfirmed press reports, meanwhile, have stated that the West of England LEP is considering two sites in Bristol - Avonmonth or the Temple Quarter - as potential locations for a zone, and other reports have claimed that it is "all but certain" that the Tees Valley will be designated an enterprise zone.

Anish Kapoor Olympic sculpture captured in new time-lapse footage

New time-lapse footage released last week by the Olympic Park Legacy Company shows the construction of the spiralling ArcelorMittal Orbit in east London's Olympic Park, which when completed will be become the tallest sculpture in the UK at 114.5 metres.

Download footage of the Orbit being constructed (MP4)

The Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond-designed ArcelorMittal Orbit will be owned by the OPLC, which is currently appointing an operator for the venue. Organisers say the attraction could reap up to £10 million each year, with a large proportion being ploughed back into regeneration of the area.

A spokesman for the OPLC said that there was no "finite lifespan" for the body, but that whatever happens, the Orbit would remain in public hands.

The Olympic Delivery Authority backed plans for the sculpture last August after taking into account concerns by the Government’s design watchdog, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (Cabe).