County Durham – encouraging innovation and real investment

As CDDC managing director Stewart Watkins explains: “Our role is to help existing businesses to grow and to attract new companies into the County. County Durham currently enjoys a healthy mix of indigenous businesses and inward investment. We have a unique overview of the property and land portfolio throughout the County and our website features around five hundred commercial properties available for sale or to rent – properties handled by a variety of agents.       
     
For inward investors and for local businesses CDDC will help identify suitable sites or premises, local suppliers, recruitment and training support, sources of financial assistance and potential business contacts. 

Stewart Watkins continues: “Our extensive business and technology networks, our local knowledge and our database resources mean that each one of our clients receives personal, tailored advice and support. We also have close links with the five universities throughout the region and our links with utility suppliers, legal, financial and other service providers further strengthen the support we’re able to offer businesses.” Durham County Council is committed to building a strong economy and what CDDC learns from listening to businesses helps inform its policies and strategies. As Stewart Watkins observes: “We maintain close contact with key companies, gathering invaluable business knowledge which helps us to understand what businesses need and helps identify future issues.”

Despite the unprecedented global economic situation there are several developments which could create significant numbers of new jobs in County Durham. CDDC is working closely with the private sector on Durham Gate – a £100m venture at Green Lane in Spennymoor. This proposal by Carillion Arlington Real Estate (CARE) is for a mixed industrial, commercial and residential development. In the east of the County, the proposal by Coolmore Estates Ltd to create a Centre for Creative Excellence has the potential to create in excess of 2,000 new jobs in what will be a future focus for the film and media industry in the region and County Durham can offer the land needed for developments on a large scale.

On the giant 104 acre Heighington Lane West site on the outskirts of Newton Aycliffe, developer Merchant Place is constructing a business park of up to 1.4m sq ft of B1/B2/B8 use, with the potential for one unit alone to be a massive 1m sq ft. The new £24m Thorn facility at Spennymoor and the company’s Thin Organic Polymeric Light Emitting Semi-conducting Surfaces (TOPLESS) project to develop low-voltage, energy efficient lighting, currently at the stage of small scale prototype testing at NETPark’s PETEC, are further evidence that County Durham can provide an environment in which business can thrive.

CDDC has been working to maximise job creation opportunities throughout County Durham by taking an active role in improving the physical infrastructure for business. Stewart Watkins says: “While a combination of private and public sector investment has created a range of factory space throughout the county, there is an acknowledged need for office space in some of the more rural areas. Excellent schemes such as that at St Stephen’s Court, Low Willington, are addressing that need.’’

High quality flexible office space at the St Stephen’s Court development at Low Willington and new units in a range of sizes of up to 2,000 sq ft at Stainton Grove near Barnard Castle have provided ideal accommodation for start-ups and growing businesses. As Stewart Watkins remarks: “The extensive development work going on throughout the County, which we’re encouraging and assisting, shows the underlying confidence that companies have in County Durham as a place to do business and a place in which to see their businesses grow.’’

Developing a knowledge based economy
Stewart Watkins sees innovation as being at the heart of CDDC’s remit of encouraging strategic investment in the County. “We want to see County Durham’s companies growing and competing with the best in the world – to see them leading the way in developing world-class technologies, creating new products and breaking into new markets. Innovation can be the route to increased quality, productivity and profit for all types of business”, he says. “The knowledge economy is all about highly-skilled people adding value to all industries – it’s about the practical application and commercialisation of the region’s world-class university research.”

As the business development arm of Durham County Council, CDDC is the driving force behind a development that provides the ideal vehicle to stimulate innovation and investment – NETPark, the North East Technology Park located at Sedgefield. On one site at the heart of the North East, NETPark brings together the world-class research skills of Durham University at the NETPark Research Institute; the adaptable mix of office and laboratory space backed by practical support and advice on offer at the CDDC-managed NETPark Incubator; and the Plastic Electronics Technology Centre (PETEC), the world-leading facility for printable electronics, managed by the Centre for Process Industries (CPI).

PETEC is a £9.5m facility that will put the region and County Durham at the forefront of revolutionary printable electronics technology. It represents an enormous opportunity for the region to attract global investment and stimulate the growth of a printable electronics/flexible materials industry cluster and supply chain. So, with NETPark as the catalyst, the technological impact can spread throughout the region. To get a measure of the potential impact – independent forecasts predict that it will be a £30bn industry by 2015 and balloon to a £250bn industry by 2025.

Stewart Watkins continues: “As the location of the national flagship centre for the new technology of printable electronics, home to some of the region’s most advanced technology companies, and Durham University’s internationally rated Centre for Advanced Instrumentation, NETPark has already established a thriving science and technology community. “Companies like Kromek, ANTnano and ROAR Particles have found NETPark the ideal environment for business growth – attracting millions of dollars of private sector investment and creating jobs.

“And with work starting soon on Innovation Village, there’ll be even more space available at NETPark in which science and technology business can grow. Developed by Helios City, this will create bespoke R&D pods ranging from 2,500 to 7,800 sq ft for companies needing expansion or investment space. It’s all part of a long-term vision for the County and the region – higher aspirations, more jobs, more companies investing or starting up in the County, a more highly-skilled workforce, more R&D activity and improved productivity leading to a stronger economy which in turn brings direct benefits to communities.”

NETPark is firmly embedded in the regional and national science, engineering and technology infrastructure. With five universities throughout the region engaged in world-class research and a support system which includes four Centres of Excellence and a network of Innovation Connectors, the North East has put in place the infrastructure needed to harness the region’s intellectual power. CDDC’s latest initiative, the virtual science park NETPark Net, aligns with the Company’s philosophy of adopting a broad approach to encouraging innovation and collaboration. 
Stewart Watkins explains: “We set up NETPark Net to link together science, engineering and technology companies so that businesses can access the benefits of NETPark without being based there. “It’s a big step towards ensuring that innovation is translated into business success across County Durham. It’s a key example of how we’ve established a broader approach, working collaboratively to fully exploit the potential of NETPark to take science and innovation from the research laboratory to the market place.”

Contact details:
If you would like to know more about business opportunities in County Durham, call CDDC on 0191 370 8680,
e-mail: enquiries@wherebusinessgrows.com, or visit wherebusinessgrows.com or uknetpark.net