The government has announced 13 new “enterprise zones” in England in a bid to boost economic growth. The prime minister said the enterprise zones would lead to the creation of 30,000 new jobs by 2012.
The zones will each have lower levels of planning control, cheaper business rates and superfast broadband. Each of the latest spots will focus on some new area of technology, reports Building. Hereford will specialise in defence, Newquay on aerospace. The automotive industries, transport and defence will receive a boost in Gosport and Hinckley whereas the Oxfordshire zone focuses on advanced material engineering. Biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, offshore wind farms, science parks.
The areas chosen are:
Daresbury Science Campus in Warrington; Newquay AeroHub in Cornwall;The Solent Enterprise Zone at Daedalus Airfield in Gosport; Rotherwas Enterprise Zone in Hereford; Discovery Park in Sandwich, Kent;Enterprise West Essex in Harlow;Science Vale UK in Oxfordshire;Alconbury Airfield in Cambridgeshire;Great Yarmouth in Norfolk;Lowestoft in Suffolk;Northampton Waterside;MIRA Technology Park in Hinckley Leicestershire;Humber Estuary Renewable Energy Super Cluster
The enterprise zones previously announced were: Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Derby, Nottingham, the Black Country, the Tees Valley, the West of England and the North East.
But there are concerns about their impact. Peter Chapman, head of rating and compensation at Cluttons, commented to Property Week: “Given these further announcements, rather than creating 30,000 new jobs, existing businesses will be very concerned that they will lose their staff who will be attracted to these new job opportunities within the new Enterprise Zones, causing a shortage of skilled labour in surrounding areas.
“It may be worth remembering that when Enterprise Zones were introduced in the 1980s, they enjoyed a chequered reputation. High profile successes such as Canary Wharf sat alongside the less impressive zones in Glasgow and the North of England. “Back then, one of the unforeseen impacts of Enterprise Zones was their detrimental impact on property values of properties which fell outside the designated area. “