Unlocking regional potential

East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA) chief executive, Jeff Moore talks about the importance of commercial property and wider regeneration initiatives in unlocking the potential of towns and cities across the East Midlands

Commercial property plays a vital role in securing investment, helping to create and encourage more skilled and high added-value jobs by providing quality sites and accommodation for businesses. We are determined to breathe new life into redundant land and revitalise communities across the region, which is why land and development was identified as a priority in the Regional Economic Strategy – a flourishing region – launched in 2006.

A key target is to achieve a 1.5 percent annual growth rate for employment floor space across the East Midlands. To address this, we launched a new £35m fund last November to contribute to a three year rolling programme of capital investment for regeneration, bringing forward investment by partners.

Our particular focus is on areas of high growth such as Northamptonshire, Derby, Leicester, Nottingham, Lincoln, Newark and Grantham; as well as sub-regional centres that demonstrate demand and need for increased high quality floor-space. We’ve now received over 100 expressions of interest from a range of public and private sector organisations which is an excellent response. Over the coming months, we will finalise those schemes set to receive funding, and anticipate that work will start on many of these towards the end of the year.

It’s an exciting time generally for development across the region and we are also involved in many different initiatives that are catalysing wider regeneration. The following are a selection of projects which EMDA has helped to develop, along with a range of public and private sector organisations, enabling the East Midlands to flourish and prosper.
Markham Employment Growth Zone

One of the largest and most important industrial infrastructure projects in the UK, covering 360 hectares. Access to the site will be significantly improved by the construction of a new junction 29a on the M1 near Bolsover, Derbyshire. Work began in early 2007. Some 60 percent of the overall site is brown-field land in an area that suffered major job losses with the contraction of the coal industry. EMDA has committed more than £3m to phase two of the scheme, set for completion by March 2009, that will create or safeguard almost 650 jobs - and has an ultimate aim of attracting £22m of private sector investment and 5,000 new jobs.

Nottingham Science Park
Blueprint, the first public-private partnership of its kind in the country and led by EMDA with English Partnerships and Igloo Regeneration, aims to address some of the region’s more challenging regeneration projects.

Its groundbreaking first project, the 12-acre extension to Nottingham Science Park, is progressing well. This scheme will change the way that science and technology meet the needs of modern business by providing an environment that can attract the best talent and better support creative thinking.

Marshall’s Yard
The Lincolnshire town of Gainsborough has been crying out for quality shopping facilities for years. The £39m Marshall’s Yard complex opened at Easter 2007 and has already attracted a host of big-name retailers such as Marks and Spencer, Next and New Look. It also includes office space, the new headquarters for West Lindsey District Council, commercial units, housing, a long stay car park and improved access between the town centre and railway station. The complex has helped breathe new life into the market town and is set to create 800 jobs. But it would never have been developed without emda and Lincolnshire Enterprise’s joint investment of £4m to clean up the site of the
former Britannia Iron Works.