An investment of £62.9million allocated to 17 projects across the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership area (Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire) will help create jobs, build homes, raise productivity, support businesses and encourage economic growth.
D2N2 – the private sector-led partnership of business, local authorities, skills and training providers, community and voluntary services, and others promoting economic growth across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire – bid for funding from Round 3 of the Government’s Local Growth Fund (LGF). The £62.9m – awarded by Government March 9 (2017) and now being allocated to projects – represents almost two-thirds of D2N2’s original £107m bid, a terrific achievement at a time of tight Government spending and the highest amount given to any Midlands LEP.
Local Growth Fund investment is aimed at creating the buildings, roads and other infrastructure necessary to support further economic growth. D2N2 bid under the project titles of Housing and Regeneration, Town and City Centre Renewal, Innovation-led Growth, and Employment and Skills; for projects due to be completed over the next five years.
It is estimated that the £62.9m awarded to the D2N2 LEP could deliver up to 7,000 jobs, 700 homes and 2,000 new learners across the D2N2 LEP area; subject to final confirmation via individual projects’ business plans.
The individual projects listed below have been selected to receive investment but will still have to submit a detailed, value for money business plan – showing practical outcomes relating to jobs, homes and learning opportunities created – to support their application and receive funding. The projects are as follows:
Derbyshire
- Castleward – £1.5million support for current 12 hectare brownfield regeneration site between Derby Midland Station and Derby city centre, to create housing and commercial development.
- Silk Mill World Heritage site, Derby – £3.7m towards a new museum and visitor attraction at Derby Silk Mill, part of the UNESCO Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site.
- Derby Performance Venue – £8.6m towards part of the Masterplan Phase One, for Derby’s City Gateway; this is to provide a 5,000-capacity performance venue in the city centre, whilst initiating regeneration works to a key area of the city centre.
- Woodville–Swadlincote Regeneration Route – £6.4m to help provide a link from the A5111 to the Brownfield ‘Tollgate Park’ site, allowing site development to take place.
- Riverside Business Park, Bakewell – £3.9m for a new bridge and access road from the A6 into the business park, and the development of 130,000 square feet of mixed use floor space.
- Foundry Park, Ilkeston (at former Stanton Ironworks) – £3.4m for project delivering 8,100 sq m of employment space at Foundry Park. LGF investment in Phase One to help develop 2.11 hectares of land.
- Rail Research and Innovation Centre, Derby – £900,000 to support new Rail Research and Innovation Centre for rail supply chain businesses in D2N2 LEP area, to drive productivity within D2N2 rail supply chain.
- Derby College: Institute for Engineering and Professional Construction – £1.3m to help renovate two further education sites, to aid professional development in engineering and construction sectors.
Nottinghamshire
- Former Vesuvius Works, Worksop – £5.5m for works forming part of a wider investment, for a junction to ‘unlock’ a mixed-use housing/employment area.
- Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre, Newark – £500,000 towards a new visitor centre at Sherwood Forest, and improvements to existing walking/cycle routes, to encourage higher visitor numbers.
- Sherwood Energy Village, Newark – £500,000 to develop 32,000 sq ft of industrial floorspace, across ten units. Communities Minister Andrew Percy MP visited this site and Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre when the Government announced D2N2’s overall LGF 3 allocation, in March (2017). The Minister is pictured above (centre) with (L to R) former Nottinghamshire County Council Leader Alan Rhodes, D2N2 Chair Peter Richardson and former Derbyshire County Council Leader Anne Western.
- HS2 Strategic Sites – £2.4million project to allow D2N2 to purchase sites to take best advantage of planned HS2 Phase Two ‘eastern leg’ route, through Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
- Southern Gateway, Nottingham – £15m towards the wider ‘southern gateway’ improvement; which includes a new Broadmarsh bus station and car park, provision of a tram stop, new retail units, public realm improvements and road improvements.
- Nottingham Castle – £5million towards Castle improvements, including to visitor galleries and public spaces.
- Unlocking Growth in Nottinghamshire Town Centres – £8m for programme of high-quality town centre improvements in Nottinghamshire; to create mixed-use environments in which businesses can prosper, offering sustainable employment opportunities and growth.
- Nottingham Trent University (NTU) Science and Technology Centre – £8.7m for a unique technology centre to increase healthcare-related commercial product development, to support the area’s medical technology sector.
In addition, £2.5million has been given towards a Midland Main Line project to help ‘straighten out’ a section of track at Market Harborough; to boost the line’s capacity and improve train speeds on southbound services, and so reduce journey times.
D2N2 has already found alternative funding for the Coalite Works site regeneration, near Bolsover, and the refurbishment of business incubation spaces at MediCity, on the Boots Enterprise Zone site; two projects which had also applied for LGF 3 funding.
Due to D2N2 not receiving all the LGF 3 funding it had applied for a very few projects will not receive immediate funding but will remain priorities for LEP investment at a later date, subject to business plan.
In allocating LGF 3 monies D2N2 has over-allocated funding, to the tune of around £77m. This is because it anticipates projects will evolve during further planning and some may not be able to demonstrate full value for money, in relation to their original LGF 3 bid. The LEP is also looking to use other potential funding sources to supplement LGF awards.
Peter Richardson, Chair of the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “D2N2’s very strong bid for Local Growth Fund 3 investment has given us a £62.9million fighting fund, with which to further improve our area’s economic infrastructure.
“This will build on the excellent use we’ve made of our previous LGF allocations; which has resulted in our contributing to the new £30m BioCity Discovery life sciences building in Nottingham, giving £12m to Derby’s ‘Our City, Our River’ riverside regeneration and anti-flood project, and investing significantly in the Nottingham & Derby Enterprise Zone.
“I look forward to seeing the detailed business plans of these ambitious new projects.”
Of the £39m D2N2 invested in 14 LGF projects in 2015/16, 64% of those contracts were delivered by contractor companies based within 20 miles of the LEP’s area; supporting the region’s construction sector.
For more examples of how D2N2 is using its original Local Growth Fund allocation, see its website at www.d2n2lep.org/Local-Growth-Fund
For further information about this media release contact D2N2 Communications Manager Sean Kirby on 0115 9578749 or email: sean.kirby@d2n2lep.org
