The £16.1 million fund was allocated to the LEP by Government to unlock stalled projects and initiatives that could help support the creation of new jobs and economic growth. After putting out an open call for bids in February, the LEP team and LEP Investment Group reviewed the bids against a series of criteria including job creation, deliverability of the project, value for money and consistency with the LEP priorities.

Their proposed shortlist was then reviewed and approved by the LEP Board, subject to the necessary due diligence processes and funding negotiations being completed.

The shortlisted projects are expected to lever a further £26million of public and private funding and unlock a total of 12,500 new jobs for the LEP area.

The LEP team, led by Infrastructure and Funding Lead Natalie Blaken, is now working with those promoting the shortlisted projects to carry out funding negotiations and due diligence, with formal funding announcements expected over the coming weeks.

Neville Reyner CBE DL, Chair of the LEP, said: “We are delighted to announce such a diverse range of shortlisted projects for Growing Places Funding ranging from space for businesses to set up and grow through to vital infrastructure priorities that are all currently held back due to funding constraints. The first round of Growing Places Funding has been specifically targeted at projects that can get underway within this financial year. Importantly, most of the schemes will be repaying the money provided to them over time so creating a revolving LEP capital fund that can in turn help even more projects get off the ground in the future.”

The shortlisted projects are as follows:

• A1139 Fletton Parkway Improvement scheme, Peterborough
• Haverhill Research Park
• Ely Crossing
• The Future Business Centre (Social & Environmental Business Incubator), Cambridge
• Fenland Horticulture and Land based Skills centre
• Babraham Park and Ride
• Ashwell Business Park, Rutland
• Huntingdon Link Road
• Peterborough Southbank Regeneration Project – Phase 2
• Utility improvements for Northstowe
• Babraham to Abingdon Cycleway

Projects that met most of the criteria, but were not successful in receiving funding in this round have been invited to resubmit their bids for the next funding round, as the Growing Places Fund is intended to revolve through repayment of loans over the coming years, and potentially through additional funding from Government.

Alex Plant, Strategy Director for the LEP added: “This funding is being used for strong projects that can deliver quickly, and it is being used in a way that will create a sustainable revolving fund, building on the “loan not grant” approach adopted for previous successful projects such as the Addenbrooke’s Access Road. We look forward to making more detailed announcements about each of these schemes soon and getting these projects moving to unlock a significant number of new jobs and economic growth across our LEP area.”

Additional information

1. The Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is focused on helping to drive forward sustainable economic growth in our area – with local business, education providers, voluntary and social enterprise sector and the public sector working together to achieve this.

2. The LEP area covers Cambridgeshire, Peterborough, Rutland, West Norfolk, West Suffolk, Uttlesford and North Hertfordshire.

3. The LEP Investment Group is a sub-group of the Board, made up of three Councillor Board Members and two business Board Members

4. The call for bids can be found online at: http://www.yourlocalenterprisepartnership.co.uk/gpf

5. Some of the short-listed projects will be able to secure funding from other sources – known as match funding – by virtue of being awarded Growing Places Funding. We estimate the additional funding leveraged to be £26 million.

Superfast broadband will help boost local businesses and the economy, reduce isolation in rural communities and help improve health and access to services.

Councils from across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough as well as the Government are investing millions of pounds in the Connecting Cambridgeshire project.

But to secure vital support from broadband providers Cambridgeshire and Peterborough needs residents and businesses to simply click and show them we want improved broadband.

The more people that register the fact they want superfast broadband the more chance of it being delivered.

From today, Tuesday, May 8, people can click on the link on the new www.connectingcambridgeshire.co.uk website to show their support.

The major campaign to Get Cambridgeshire Connected with better broadband for homes and businesses will be launched countywide as the website goes live.

Householders and businesses can register their demand for broadband in minutes with just a postcode and landline phone number.

People who do not have access to the internet can register online or on paper forms in libraries, council offices and other public places.

Visitors to the Connecting Cambridgeshire website can also check their broadband speeds, find out about the benefits of broadband for businesses and communities and volunteer to become Digital Champions for their local areas.

Designed to be easy to use, the website will develop as the main source of information about the project with links to partners’ sites, and regular updates about the campaign, which can be followed using Twitter and Facebook.

The Connecting Cambridgeshire project is being led by Cambridgeshire County Council in partnership with Peterborough City Council, District Councils and partners in business, health and education.

The aim is to bring access to superfast broadband to at least 90% of businesses and homes across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, and better connectivity for all remaining premises by 2015.

Cambridgeshire County Council has committed up to £20million and Peterborough City Council has pledged up to £3million towards the project, with £6.75million allocated by the Government agency BDUK. This public money is being used to attract significant investment from the private sector.

Cambridgeshire County Councillor Ian Bates, Cabinet Member for Growth and Planning, said: “Registering takes seconds but could make a big difference to people’s lives. It means elderly residents get better access to healthcare and services. It means local businesses can grow and new ones start up, which creates more jobs and a prosperous economy. It also means children have better access to educational material, raising academic achievement.

“A simple click of the mouse could mean so much to Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Showing the levels of demand for better broadband will help Connecting Cambridgeshire to attract substantial investment from broadband suppliers, particularly in hard to reach rural areas. We would encourage you to click onto www.connectingcambridgeshire.co.uk and register.”

Neville Reyner CBE DL, Chairman of the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Enterprise Partnership (LEP) said: “Superfast Broadband is a vital element of the infrastructure we need to support our future growth aspirations and sustainability across the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough area. It is also critical for the UK as a whole because of the significant contribution our area makes to the national economy.

“I would urge as many people as possible to register their demand for improved broadband – that goes for businesses and for the community as a whole. The more people that do this the better we can enable and attract substantial investment from broadband suppliers to cover the LEP area as a whole, including the Enterprise Zone, key business and research locations and the harder-to-reach rural areas.”

Marco Cereste, Leader of Peterborough City Council, said: “I urge everyone to support this campaign in a bid to help our city secure superfast broadband. Increasing our connectivity will attract new businesses, innovation and enterprise. “Wider coverage with faster connection speeds will also boost our environment capital aspirations and help to reduce our carbon footprint, as businesses will be able to encourage more people to work from home, or remotely, reducing traffic congestion. “We all have a vital role to play in supporting the campaign and I encourage residents to visit the city council’s website where signing up to support superfast broadband takes just a few minutes. The more registrations we can achieve, the better chance we have of broadband suppliers coming onboard to make our vision a reality.”

Nick Wright, South Cambridgeshire District Council’s cabinet member for economic development, said: “Broadband is one of our top priorities as it is a burning issue for our residents and businesses. By logging on, registering, and putting your weight behind our campaign, you will play a major role in helping us bring high speed broadband to the area. Our strong economy already sees South Cambridgeshire punch well above our weight nationally, but better broadband will help the area go from strength to strength.”

The report offers an evidence-based assessment of where the LEP-area economies currently stand in terms of their economic characteristics and recent performance. It shows  that the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough economy  has performed well in the 10 years leading up to the recession. Its overall economic performance went from 11th best (out of 39 LEPs) in 1998 to 6th best in 2008, before settling at 9th place in 2009. Looking to the future, the LEP has been identified as being particularly well placed for growth – being less reliant on public sector employment and expenditure than many other LEP areas, and performing very well in terms of entrepreneurship – something the LEP Board is keen to continue to help foster.

In addition to its entrepreneurial flair the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough area is advantageously positioned for growth. The report concludes that productivity, skills, innovation, enterprise and competition significantly help drive growth and economic performance – and that all of these are strong existing features of our LEP area.

Neville Reyner CBE DL, Chair of the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough LEP, said: “I welcome the findings of this report, and I believe that the predicted future growth in the world economy will bring significant opportunities for our LEP area. The UK is currently under-represented in key growth markets – such as China and India – and our LEP area is well placed to rise to the challenge to increase trade with these countries (and particularly to increase exports), which will enhance our economic performance.

“With existing strengths in terms of the global outlook of our business base, the global connections and networks of our business leaders, and the pro-growth mindset of our local authorities, these emerging markets present real opportunities for our local businesses and entrepreneurs. We believe that our economy has the three key facets of competitive advantage: concepts, networks and ideas and is well placed take full advantage of growth opportunities in the future.”

Dr Glenn Athey, Economic Strategy and Investment Lead at the LEP, added: “Through this report, Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough can claim to be the leading innovation and knowledge area in the country. It has a significant presence of scientific, engineering, technology and software activities, and demonstrates remarkably high levels of innovation with 43.1 patents filed per 100,000 residents in 2007, the highest of all LEP areas and over four times higher than the national average. This technological specialism is further reflected in a high share of employment in high-technology production and knowledge-intensive services, something we are keen to support by tackling major barriers to economic growth such as infrastructure, inward investment and skills development.

The LEP Team have reviewed the findings of the LEP Network report and will now use the relevant information to support future work to support the continued growth of the local economy.

To set the scene, the group heard from: Neil Darwin about the LEP’s role in the skills agenda; Iain Crighton from Cambridgeshire Chamber of Commerce presented the excellent work Opportunity Peterborough do around skills for employers which has already attracted over 1,100 businesses to participate; Jaqui Fairfax from CUB and Paul Beeson from Stainless Metalcraft gave an overview of their own experiences employing apprentices.

It was then time to find out more about shared skills issues to identify how the LEP can best help overcome them. The key message to come from the day was the need to work together as a partnership to create a long-term skills vision that businesses can plan for and around.

The LEP was seen to be the organisation that can help make this happen by bringing together the right people at the right time to steer work in the right direction and challenge the status quo.

A small Skills sub-group will now be developed, led by LEP Board Member Allan Arnott OBE and supported by Skills and Business Growth Lead Mark Cooper. We will keep this blog updated with further news as the group develops.

If you have any further views of skills for enterprise and economic growth please contact Mark Cooper via mark.cooper@yourlocalenterprisepartnership.co.uk.

The Government is consulting on identifying the best solutions to organising, managing and allocating these funds – they are expecting a response from us by 27 April. Their official invitation can be found online here: (http://nds.coi.gov.uk/content/Detail.aspx?ReleaseID=423928&NewsAreaID=2)

These funds together provided £8 billion for England between 2007 and 2013. For our local areas one fund alone (ERDF) provided £94 million – levering in a further £140 million of investment – in the East of England region.

Particular views are sought on the following issues. We have also included some of our initial thoughts on these:

1. Objectives/themes (our initial thoughts are these should be decided by local organisations and reflect common needs and opportunities across local areas. Our area economic strategy which we will develop in 2012 should be used to shape this approach)

2. Geography and local focus (we would prefer to see local areas collaborating to develop their own proposals for the geography of European funding programmes rather than having these imposed by Central Government or the European Commission)

3. Streamlined administration (as far as possible, we would like to see local partners collaborating to administer funds – and there are precedents for this in other parts of the EU)

4. Integration/joining up across funds and between outcomes (in principle we would like to see the opportunities for better integration explored, especially if that means multi-fund programmes, and common governance, application and monitoring arrangements)

5. Other issues (we think that programmes and programme administration need to be better designed for business funding applications and co-investment as currently the levels of bureaucracy and compliance required are a major disincentive to businesses applying for and using these funds)

Please let us know your views – post them on our LinkedIn Group “Your Local Enterprise Partnership”, tweet us @YourLEP or send them directly to Economic Strategy & Investment Lead Glenn Athey via glenn.athey@yourlocalenteprisepartnership.co.uk

The Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Enterprise Partnership worked with Urban&Civic, Huntingdonshire District Council, Huntingdonshire Regional College and Cambridgeshire County Council to bid for the funding earlier this year. Official confirmation has now been received that a full funding allocation of £100,000 has been made to our LEP.

The funding will be used for skills planning and partnership work centred on Alconbury Enterprise Zone, to maximise the positive impact this development has on the local area.

Neville Reyner CBE DL, Chair of the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Enterprise Partnership, said: “The Enterprise Zone Skills Fund will provide welcome funding to support skills development in the area. Alconbury provides us with a fantastic opportunity to support the continued growth of our economy across the LEP area, and work to ensure our people have the right skills to meet the needs of local employers.”

Skills and Business Growth Lead for the LEP, Mark Cooper, will now continue to work with partners to develop a plan that maximises the benefit of the funding to ensure colleges and training organisations are offering courses that closely match local employer’s requirements in the future.

Council leaders are encouraging small businesses to come to West Suffolk after a BBC research showed that Forest Heath and St Edmundsbury are the top two places in the country for ‘business champions’ – small but rapidly growing firms.

These firms could be the key to ‘rebalancing the economy’ says the report, carried out for the BBC by Experian. The news was welcomed by the councils, who both have dedicated economic development teams working closely with businesses throughout West Suffolk.

Cllr James Waters, Leader of Forest Heath District Council, said: “It’s a real community effort with everyone here becoming ever more business-focused. Small businesses are terrifically important for the national as well as the local economy because that’s where the jobs growth will be coming from in the future. We make sure we talk their language and understand how we can best use our resources to  support them.”

At St Edmundsbury Borough Council, Deputy Leader Cllr Sara Mildmay-White said: “Our West Suffolk location is ideal because we are very close to Cambridge. When businesses are looking to locate near to this area, or moving out of Cambridge because it doesn’t have the capacity, we’ve got more affordable overheads and homes for employees. This area is well-known for its quality of life, so we have a lot to offer businesses looking to grow.”

‘Business champions’, says Experian, have directors that show ‘entrepreneurial skill, appetite for business risk and real international outlook’. Forest Heath, with 14.6% of businesses classified as business champions, and St Edmundsbury, with 14.1%, are ranked 1 and 2 in the country in this category.

The Experian report also said that the two council areas had the highest proportion of those likely to succeed. Both councils share the same geographical benefits of being in the Cambridge sub-region and have developed strong relationships with local businesses through regular meetings, business events and consultations. They also have a range of start-up and other business units of various sizes and locations, as well as expertise to help new businesses.

“If you want to set up or grow your business . . . come and talk to us because we have all the ingredients to help you prosper” is the message from West Suffolk.

ENDS

Note: BBC report: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-17357807

A number of announcements in the Budget are of particular relevance for the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough area, including:

• The Government has shortlisted options for improvements to the A14 between Huntingdon and Cambridge;
• An additional £5.2 million of Growing Places Fund will be allocated to our area to fund delayed projects that can unlock potential economic growth;
• An increase to small firms’ access to finance via the Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme, which will be of particular interest to our newly formed Banking sub-group;
• An ‘above the line’ R&D tax credit that could help many of our innovative SMEs currently working within the research sphere; and,
• New tax breaks for creative industries, including for computer gaming companies, which will help to support our growing creative industries hub.

Neville Reyner CBE DL, Chair of the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Enterprise Partnership, said: “We welcome the moves from the Government to help support the economic prosperity of our area and the UK as a whole. A further investment of £5.2 million in the Growing Places Fund, much needed work to improve the A14, investment in better broadband and a more competitive tax system should help to support our existing businesses and attract new enterprise to our area.”

“We eagerly await further details on a number of announcements over the coming weeks, including those relating to investment in science and support for research that should help to strengthen our existing reputation as the leading technology region in Europe – we will be looking to make the most of today’s announcements to support continued innovation and development of world-class technology and manufacturing solutions which can help drive the UK’s overall economic performance”

“The Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough area remains a fantastic place to do business, and our Enterprise Partnership is absolutely committed to making the most of the huge economic potential of our area over the coming years.”

The full Budget report can be viewed online at: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/budget2012.htm

This permission will mean that the developers can now start work on a new construction entrance to the site, new internal roads and drainage systems, the necessary demolition work, and to set in place an iconic tree-lined boulevard which will start to transform the former airfield into a centre for innovation and enterprise.

The Enterprise Zone is just part of Urban&Civic’s future plans for the brownfield site, and they will be bringing forward an Outline Application in the next few months for a high quality low carbon development creating 8000 jobs, 5000 homes and crafting 700 acres of green space – including the planting of half a million trees – over the entire 575 hectare site.

Managing Director Robin Butler said: “Alconbury sits on the spine of the country, with transport links running north to south, east to west, and close links to air and sea ports. It has fantastic infrastructure and resources on site from its military legacy, and is at the heart of the dynamic Greater Cambridgeshire Greater Peterborough economic area – surrounded by innovation, cutting edge cleantech industry, and a skilled workforce.

“We are setting the bar high with the quality of development and strong sustainable principles, providing low carbon flexible space to allow businesses to grow and communities to develop in harmony with and surrounded by the natural environment. This early infrastructure investment is the first part of ensuring those elements are realised”.

As part of the early work on site Urban&Civic are also working with Jobcentre Plus and Huntingdonshire Regional College to ensure that the development helps provide training, skills development and jobs for local people.  The initial response will include a training centre on site up and running from 1 April and will expand into a jobs and skills brokerage scheme as the development is rolled out.

Urban&Civic – which brings together a handpicked team from Chelsfield and Lend Lease under the experienced leadership of Nigel Hugill and Robin Butler – bought the former airfield in 2009 backed by GI partners. They have spent the last two years working up plans for the site with local partners and local communities. The site was successful in gaining Enterprise Zone status in August 2011. The next steps for the team will be submitting an application for an incubator unit in early summer, and finalising the Outline Application and Masterplan.

Neville Reyner CBE DL, Chair of Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Enterprise Partnership, said: “It is great news that the Enabling Application has been approved, it is a significant milestone in the development of the Enterprise Zone, and I am impressed with how quickly Huntingdonshire District Council has been able to process and determine Urban&Civic’s application. I am now looking forward to seeing the rapid development of fantastic new facilities for businesses at Alconbury which will support our ambitious plans for economic and jobs growth within the wider LEP area.”

Mark Tagliaferri, Managing Director of GI partners, added: “At a time of economic uncertainty the development of Alconbury reflects our fundamental belief in strategic land projects.   The Enterprise Zone and the broader development will bring real transformational benefit not just to the local economy but to UK PLC.  Robin and Nigel have been behind some of the most successful major strategic developments of the last two decades, and we are pleased to be working with them on this inspiring project.”

The new station will also enable companies located to the north of Cambridge and beyond, including our world leading technology cluster, to have a faster and more direct journey into London and beyond. In addition to this, the development itself will create new jobs and new opportunities.

Neville Reyner CBE DL Chair of the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Enterprise Partnership