The Minister charged with helping to boost economic growth in the East Midlands met with D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership board members and area businesses today (Thursday November 10), to hear their views and priorities.
Nick Hurd MP – a Minister at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy – is also Ministerial local growth champion for the East Midlands; and chief liaison with the region’s D2N2 (covering Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire), Greater Lincolnshire, and Leicester & Leicestershire Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). He also covers the LEPs for Leeds, Humber, York and North Yorkshire, Sheffield and London.
On a visit to the East Midlands today Mr Hurd was given a guided tour of MediCity Nottingham; the incubation centre which is home to around 30 companies involved in the healthcare, medical technologies, beauty and wellbeing sectors. MediCity is a collaboration between BioCity Nottingham and Boots, and is based on the Boots Enterprise Zone in Beeston.
The Minister then met with Board members of the D2N2 LEP – the private sector-led Partnership which promotes economic growth and jobs creation across Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire – its Chair Peter Richardson (who chaired the meeting) and Chief Executive David Ralph, and key business representatives from the D2N2 area, to discuss local priorities and how these can feed into the Government’s national industrial strategy.
Mr Hurd is pictured at the meeting (centre right of above photo) at MediCity Nottingham, with D2N2 LEP Chair Peter Richardson across from him and D2N2 Board Member Peter Gadsby to the Minister’s right.
Businesses at the meeting included Boots, Chinook Energy inc, Sygnature Discovery, Romax Technology and Turner & Townsend; business groups East Midlands Chamber, the Federation of Small Businesses, the Confederation of British Industry and the Institute of Directors; and Nottingham Trent University.
D2N2’s latest Infrastructure and Investment Board meeting approved more than £700,000 from its Local Growth Fund allocation for a £1.4m scheme to refurbish a 29,800 square foot space on the Boots Enterprise Zone site, to provide additional MediCity Nottingham incubation space for life sciences companies. The remainder of the project’s costs will be met by Boots and MediCity itself.
Following today’s meeting, Mr Hurd said: “Each region across the country has unique strengths and I’ve seen today how the medical technology and manufacturing industries are driving growth across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
“At MediCity in Nottingham, over £700,000 from the Local Growth Fund will give life science companies more space to innovate and lead to the creation of another 750 jobs.
“This Government will continue to work closely with Local Enterprise Partnerships, and listen to the voices of businesses and local leaders as we build our industrial strategy.”
Peter Richardson, Chair of the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership, added: “The Government has recognised the vital role Local Enterprise Partnerships play in the economy by assigning individual Business Ministers to work more closely with them and it was good to talk directly to Nick Hurd today; to discuss the growth priorities of this area, Brexit and the emerging industrial strategy.
“With their emphasis on listening to businesses and providing practical solutions to help their growth, the approach of LEPs like D2N2 has much to offer and contribute to the Government’s new economic strategy.”
For more on the work of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy – created by Prime Minister Theresa May last July (2016) – see its website at www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-business-energy-and-industrial-strategy
To learn more about how the D2N2 LEP is boosting economic growth and creating jobs in its area, go to its website at www.d2n2lep.org
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