ENTERPRISE ZONE

[Denise Lloyd]

INVESTORS EYE HEREFORD’S ENTERPRISE ZONE

 15th Oct 2015  Midlands  Storm Rannard

A number of defence and security companies are eyeing investment opportunities at Hereford's enterprise zone following an industry event.

More than 45 businesses met with representatives from the Skylon Park enterprise zone at the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) at London’s ExCel arena.

It has now been revealed that up to ten businesses are set to enter further discussions regarding the availability of land and existing accommodation at the site.

Bill Jackson, chairman of the Hereford Enterprise Zone, said: "This is very positive news for the zone and Skylon Park, especially as this was the first time that we have been represented at this prestigious event.

"As the only enterprise zone in the UK to have a dedicated defence and security focus, we feel that we have a very attractive offer to these organisations."

Skylon Park is currently home to more than 80 defence and security companies.

 

 

 Will this add fuel to the argument for the SLR?

[ragwert]

 Skylon Park is currently home to more than 80 defence and security companies.

That's a lot of companies on one site

[Denise Lloyd]

I thought it was a bit of a high number - interesting

[Maggie May]

This is the Skylon park news Feb 2015 http://www.skylonpark.co.uk/media/10572/Newsletter-February-15.pdf and refers to the first businesses moving to the Enterprise Zone - Beck , Marches Global and WPD. Mind you Mr Jackson is a very successful estate agent so perhaps he was just talking the Enterprise Zone up when he said 80 security and defence businesses were there. To be fair they could have all moved in after Feb 2015. 

[Denise Lloyd]

From Here for Hereford who I am quite certain will not mind me copying it across from FB

 

Cabinet's 6000 jobs boast proven empty ... by their own admission just 254 jobs at present. ... from our friends at Here For Hereford .... read on ...
MARCHES LOCAL ENTERPRISE PARTNERSHIP - YOU CAN’T SEE THE WOOD FOR THE TREES 
Much attention was paid to the workings of the Marches LEP at the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny meeting yesterday, but the big picture was lost. What does it cost? How well is it doing? How is it governed? Who owns it? The closest we got to answers were, for example:-that an Annual Report is planned to appear first in April 2016; that Business Rate Income is running now at £240,000 p.a. but is estimated to increase, on average, to £979,000 p.a. in the period 2016/17 to 2021/21; that the ‘accounts’ are supposed to appear within Shropshire Council’s Accounts, but that Council denies that they have this obligation; that, so far, nine firms have moved in to the Hereford Enterprise Zone (creating 254 jobs actually working there); that Herefordshire Council is supposed to provide governance support to the LEP to ensure accountability but the ‘executive’ joint committee charged with this governance requirement has rarely met; that the LEP is not a legal entity but Herefordshire Council owns 80% of the HEZ land with the balance owned, apparently, by the Goodwin family; AND, most relevant perhaps to the immediate substance of the Marches LEP Growth Fund projects, the South Wye Transport Package is no longer being developed or delivered by the LEP.

[Aylestone Voice]

I do find it a bit sad that some people seem to find pleasure in the fact that businesses and jobs are not coming to/starting up in Hereford.

Perhaps that is really what they want - a quiet backwater where the majority of the residents are old and retired?

[Denise Lloyd]

AV Fairly rhetorical statement really when you consider we have a Cabinet who refuse to take the advice of the professionals and the wishes of the people on the disposal of the Council farms.

 

Page 3 of the HT takes you to an interview with your Leader Johnson taking the very dogmatic stance that there will be houses and roads built in this county. Referring to the western bypass which will be built via Breinton - "It will be definitely be built.  the western route is the only route"

 

I do not know whether you are a born and bred Herefordian but I do know that when it was a sleepy backwater we did not have a overly costly Council unable to keep our roads free of potholes/the green and pleasant lands of the country free of rubbish/an unsolved murder/vicious attacks on innocent individuals/good hard working food producing families being evicted because the council are failing to balance the books despite if the letter in the HT is anything to go by a certain fudging of the figures for the Link road/not forgetting the endless traffic problems . Not forgetting the houses being built on precious farmland and areas prone to flooding and not the infrastructure to carry extra people living in the county. Hospitals that could cope. The list is endless. So yes I would prefer to live in a sleepy safe backwater.

[ragwert]

Looking at the size of land Skylon Park is on,how on earth would you have 6,000 people working there.
I struggle to see how 1,000 jobs could be made here.

[herefordman75]

Looking at the size of land Skylon Park is on,how on earth would you have 6,000 people working there.

I struggle to see how 1,000 jobs could be made here.

 

Probably 6000 shift workers - 6 factories employing 1000 each, all on split shifts at 500 per shift (still a lot, but then break that down into smaller units and it soon adds up) - although, yes, still quite fanciful - I doubt there is close to that number currently working in Rotherwas as a whole

[lpusseycat]

The same old crap coming in wake up people we will never succeed in this city without the right infrastructure . Laymens terms we do not have a infrastructure until that is addressed forget big companies investing here because it just will not happen.

[Denise Lloyd]

My comment 7 refers to this report in the HT

 

 http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/14338083.Council_leader_claims_county_needs_to_invest_in_homes_and_roads_to_survive/?ref=mr&lp=4

[Denise Lloyd]

The latest update posted by Elissa Swinglehurst and written by David Harlow  -

 

 

Elissa Swinglehurst, Cllr.

2 hrs Â· 

Herefordshire Council is working to deliver economic growth to the county as a priority. Here is an update from Cllr. Harlow, cabinet member economy and corporate.

Economic and corporate update August 2016

Please find below a brief report on some elements of the economic & corporate portfolio:

Enterprise Zone
• 10 land sales completed totalling 18 acres
• 18,300 sq m new and refurbished premises created by these 10 investors
• At least £9m invested in constructing these premises
• 669 job opportunities identified in the 10 investment commitments made on site
• 266 of these are new job opportunities identified as part of the growth of these companies
• In addition, 2 direct developments built, with £3.3m invested
• These direct developments (Skylon Court, Skylon Place) provide 13 units to rent totalling 2,000 sqm on 2 acres of land
• 11 of these 13 new units let with the other 2 about to be fitted out for a tenant
• Includes the Business Solutions Centre run by Wolverhampton University, which itself hosts the Herefordshire Growth Hub
• 116 jobs opportunities identified by the businesses occupying/to occupy these units to rent, with 52 of these identified as new opportunities as the businesses grow
• A further 13 land sales are currently being negotiated on over 40 acres
• These have the potential to create a further 26,000 sqm of new workspace if these negotiations proceed satisfactorily
• Over 500 job opportunities have been identified by these investors in these initial discussions

Strategic Economic plan (aka ‘master plan’)
• Early draft presented to Overview and scrutiny committee (O&S) in July for initial comment
• Work ongoing over August and September
• Projects defined before going back to O&S in September
• Paper to cabinet and full council in Q4 this year
• Purpose of the plan is stated as follows:
‘Growing the Herefordshire economy will provide benefit in the form of maintaining, or increasing, living standards, help tackle poverty, increasing wages levels and disposable income, encouraging investment leading to further growth successes. As an enabler of growth the aim of the economic master plan is to:
o Create the right conditions for economic growth and;
o To move towards a higher value economy.’
Herefordshire Council website
We are currently working on a complete redesign of the Council website to better suit the need of our users – the current site is designed along our corporate lines with separate sections according to Directorates. Our users want to search for services based on their needs rather than how we organise ourselves as an organisation.
The new site will also introduce some different language, for example if our users talk about ‘footpaths’ then currently they will find nothing as we refer to footpaths as ‘public rights of way’. Our plan is to assist users by making the help tool better and therefore make services easier to find.
The timetable for delivering this new site is very tight but we are hoping to launch it in December 2016.

[Maggie May]

I think that quite a few of the jobs at Rotherwas came from businesses already based in Hereford like Western Power, who moved from the Three Elms Trading Estate. Apart from them I heard that alot of the buildings on the Enterprise Zone were funded and built by Herefordshire Council. There is no point claiming they are having success creating lots of "new" jobs if most of them came from businesses already working in Herefordshire but moved to the Enterprise Zone to gain the exemption on the business rates. Does the article explain how much the Council have lost in business rates because by moving them to the Enterprise Zone? 

This happened a lot before in South Wales and other places where businesses were given a sweetener to move to a certain location because they would then save money on something or gain a grant. Very few of the businesses stayed or lasted very long as they often had no commitment to the local community or their local employees as that wasn't the reason they had moved there. 

[DILLIGAF]

http://www.skylonpark.co.uk/news/2017/march/10/funding-awarded-for-new-herefordshire-cyber-security-centre.aspx#.WNqtvDN4WEc

 

Confirmed by Jessie Norman MP today.

[Maggie May]

Well if the cyber security centre is going there I hope they have a really good cable/broadband connection as when I used to work down there your upload and download speeds were a joke. Sometimes it was quicker to back stuff onto a memory stick and take it home before sending it. Hardly the best environment for a cyber security centre. Malvern already has a cyber centre where alot of people from Qineteq and other tech places all work http://www.malvern-cybersecurity.com/ . AS usual Hereford is behind the curve on this - and doesnt have the transport or internet access like so many other areas. Malvern you can easily get to Birmingham or London. THat bit from Hereford to Malvern or vice versa can be terminated at Ledbury or the train fails to turn up.

[ragwert]

Well if the cyber security centre is going there I hope they have a really good cable/broadband connection as when I used to work down there your upload and download speeds were a joke. Sometimes it was quicker to back stuff onto a memory stick and take it home before sending it. Hardly the best environment for a cyber security centre. Malvern already has a cyber centre where alot of people from Qineteq and other tech places all work http://www.malvern-cybersecurity.com/ . AS usual Hereford is behind the curve on this - and doesnt have the transport or internet access like so many other areas. Malvern you can easily get to Birmingham or London. THat bit from Hereford to Malvern or vice versa can be terminated at Ledbury or the train fails to turn up.

There are two internet providers in Rotherwas with Virgin giving best speed between 80-100 mps using FTTP.

When the Skylon tower is built it will be used as a mast I think by BT.

[herefordman75]

Maybe what they really mean is that there are 80 defence and security staff patrolling the area......There are new units being built opposite the garage, and also some being built out the back of the Tomhead estate as well.

[Denise Lloyd]

 

Non-executive Chair sought for Hereford Enterprise Zone

Hereford Enterprise Zone Ltd is seeking to appoint a non-Executive Chair from the private sector to take a strategic lead in taking its business forward.

Following a successful bid from the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership, Enterprise Zone status was awarded to Skylon Park in 2011, covering over 100 acres of employment land at Rotherwas in Hereford.  The Company was created to take the work of the Zone forward, connecting the land owners into the wider supporting partnership, including the business community.

The Zone has established itself and is proving a success.  Over 26 acres have been sold, representing 12 investments with 2 direct developments altogether totalling 300,000 sq ft of new workspace already built or under development.  More sales are in negotiation.

This is a unique opportunity to lead the Enterprise Zone and to act as an Ambassador to promote its work to prospective clients and partners.  The Chair will make a significant contribution to encouraging further inward investment and identifying new opportunities, maintaining and promoting strategic relationships with key stakeholder partners, including membership of the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership Board.

The Chair will be a highly respected individual with a proven track record in the business community, passionate about the future economic well-being of Herefordshire and able to provide dynamic, high profile leadership for the Zone.  A knowledge of or background in commercial property would be valuable, but this should not be a deterrent to otherwise suitably qualified candidates.

The appointment will be for a period of 3 years.  The commitment is expected to be approximately 2 - 3 days per month and is not remunerated.  Travel expenses will be met if required.

The appointment will run from 1 January 2018, with the expectation of a hand over in the autumn of 2017 as the current Chair prepares to step down at the end of a successful full term.

A candidate’s pack can be obtained from the Enterprise Zone Managing Director on 07792 880248 or by emailing mark@skylonpark.co.uk

Completed submissions should be returned by 5.00pm on 31 July 2017.

 

[megilleland]

1st February 2018 - Marches Local Enterprise Partnership

 

New Chairman for Hereford Enterprise Zone

 

(extract)

 

A leading specialist with a global law firm has been revealed as the new chairman of the Hereford Enterprise Zone.

Andrew Manning Cox, a Senior Partner with Gowling WLG (UK) LLP, will take over as the head of the Zone’s Executive Board from Herefordshire businessman Bill Jackson, who has held the post since 2012.

New directors Charles Ingleby, a partner in commercial property consultancy Ingleby Trice and Sharon Smith, the Chief Executive of the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce, have joined him on the board. Mr Ingleby will serve as Vice Chairman.

Skylon Park in Rotherwas is the designated Enterprise Zone of The Marches Local Enterprise Partnership, the private sector-led organisation tasked with revitalising the economy of Herefordshire, Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin.

It is the UK’s only Enterprise Zone with a defence and security focus. The Executive Board sets the direction and strategy of the Zone.