News Update

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E: kay@investinnottingham.co.uk

The Meadows Gateway, a £150m redevelopment scheme, has been given the green light by councillors.

Plans for the first phase of the development on the site around Arkwright Street and Sheriffs Way were approved by City councillors recently.

It is common knowledge that, last month, the Bank of England confirmed that the U.K. economy probably entered recession in the second half of 2008 and is likely to contract further in 2009, with most forecasters currently anticipating growth to begin in 2010.

Nottingham is better placed to weather the credit crunch than many cities, according to a new survey. Oxford Economics have carried out an assessment of which big cities are most vulnerable to the credit crunch. Nottingham is ranked below many cities such as Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds and Manchester. Our wide spread of industries in different sectors helps protect the city from the excesses of the credit crunch, as well as our strength in sectors such as creative, science and technology. There’s also around £1bn of public sector investment in the pipeline over the next seven years, to fund new schools, homes and transport improvements.

Nottingham City Council plans to speed up help for small and medium-size firms to help them ride out the economic squeeze. The strategy includes encouraging more local firms to bid for council work and supplies.

But while some other East Midlands local authorities have pledged to pay bills within ten working days, the city council says its systems and procedures cannot compete.

Deputy leader of the council Graham Chapman says he is determined to find ways of keeping the local economy flowing through the economic downturn.

Science and Technology

Finance and Business

Retail and Leisure

Creative Industries

Public Sector

Following the completion of the Master plan, Nottingham Regeneration Limited have instructed a team of consultants led by Architect Studio Egret West (the architects who designed the Science Park) to prepare outline planning applications which will be submitted by March 2009.

Nottingham Regeneration Limited are continuing to talk to various landowning interests and other partners including Nottingham University Hospital Trust, Nottingham City Council, emda, Blueprint and Nottingham Development Enterprise.

Congratulations to The University of Nottingham and the East Midlands Development Agency (emda) who performed a ground breaking ceremony on 11 November 2008 to signal the start of work on a £9m state-of-the-art facility in Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS).

The Hub project, a £67m redevelopment of Nottingham Station, will provide a state of the art public transport interchange and gateway to the City which meets current and expected future needs. It will act as a catalyst for wider regeneration in the Southside area, supporting the extension of the City Centre, bringing forward new inward investment, jobs and a stimulus for neighbourhood transformation in the Meadows area.

The project has been developed through a Project Board which has actively involved the City Council, County Council, emda, NRL, GNP, Network Rail, East Midlands Trains, and the Greater Nottingham Partnership.

Nottingham has won European Living Lab status to develop its Connected Nottingham programme. The award, due to be announced at the European Commission’s prestigious ICT 2008 event in Lyon, France on 25th November, will give a further boost to Nottingham’s recognition as one of Europe’s foremost Science Cities.

It’s official - Invest in Nottingham is the new company name and brand for Nottingham’s inward investment team.

Previously called Vision Nottingham, the decision to change the company name came as part of Nottingham City Council’s strategic plan, helping to bring future investment to Nottingham.

So far this financial year the Invest in Nottingham team has received over 130 enquiries from businesses looking to invest in the area. Of those 17% were from Financial and Business Services, 21% from Science and Technology, 27% Retail and Leisure, 6% from the Public Sector and Creative Industries accounted for 5%. We also saw manufacturing account for 9% of the enquiries with 15% falling into other sectors.

The public sector is the biggest office occupier in the UK - and by some margin with more than 10 million sq m on the civil estate alone. In addition to the efficiency agenda, the public sector estate is now on the frontline of the Government’s environmental sustainability reform programme.

Invest in Nottingham recently organised for Nottingham developers and agents to give an overview on the Nottingham property offer with regards to Bream excellence and outstanding buildings to the Deputy Director of Governetz in an attempt to bring further public sector relocations to Nottingham.

It is envisaged that the period 2010 - 2012 will be very busy for public sector relocations. We therefore gave a complete overview of what property is currently available and what future new builds are planned. Watch this space...

The first meeting was held in November 2008 to pull together the bid for Nottingham to become the 2012 World Design Capital. Representatives of both the public and private sector joined together to discuss the bid.

Launched in 1998 the Roses Design Awards celebrates design excellence across the full cross section of the design industry in Scotland and the English Regions. As the only platform of its type available for the design industry outside of London to celebrate their achievements the event us attended by over 500 professionals, ranging from architects, designers, planners, developers, opinion formers and clients. Nottingham has successfully managed to poach the event from Manchester, where it has been hosted each October since the awards began. Watch this space for the Roses Design Awards 2009 - Nottingham.

NOTTINGHAM designers have made a corset for a best-selling artist. X-Factor star Leona Lewis will be sporting the bespoke black 50s-style Bettie corset by Eternal Spirits in the video for her latest single, Forgive Me.

Eternal Spirits has its studio in St Peter’s Church Walk. www.eternalspirits.com

Following the successful launch of the Nottingham Regeneration and Investment Magazine the second edition is now well underway. If you would like to advertise in the latest edition contact Lorraine Baggs on 0115 9155381 or E:lorraine@investinnottingham.co.uk

Innes England, commercial property agents for ng², let the unit to the Transform Cosmetic Surgery Group which has taken a ten year lease on Unit 21, The Triangle.

East Midlands Property and Investment Show - 4 November Networking event for East Midlands businesses and potential investors

Mapic - 19 to 21 November The international market for retail real estate

Medica - 19 to 22 November One of the largest exhibitions in the world promoting Medical Technologies

Genesis - 9 to 10 December
Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre and BERR Conference Centre, Westminster, London, UK
The largest biotechnology conference built around networking

Shared Services and Outsourcing Summit -
9 to 11 Feb 2009 Le Meridian, Piccadilly - This is a leading shared services network annual summit

MIPIM 2009 - 10 to 13 March 2009 The world’s leading and most influential International Real Estate Forum

Invest in Nottingham Day - 19 March 2009 Promoting Nottingham as a key business location

A Nottingham city councillor recently urged Alistair Darling to help stimulate the local economy by bringing forward capital projects worth up to £1bn.

Coun Graham Chapman, portfolio holder for resources, economic development and reputation, urged the Government to fast-track up to ten construction projects which would help create jobs.

Congratulations to...

Innes England who scooped the prestigious Estates Gazette Midlands Property Advisor of the Year award for 2008 fending off stiff competition from agents throughout the Midlands.

Blueprint won Developer of the Year and Design led Project of the year from the Midlands Property Awards 2008

Maber Architects who won the EMCBE - Constructing Excellence East Midlands Regional Awards - Value Award for their work at Trent Bridge Cricket Ground.

Morgan Ashurst and Stem Architects were awarded as joint winers for their work on the Nottingham Science & Technology Park. Morgan Ashurst for transforming the physical landscape through a massive regeneration project, restoring a large site back to a usable and flexible state. Stem Architects for their commitment to ecology and for producing a healthy and productive workplace.

Well done to Trinity Catholic School who were rated by Ofsted as an outstanding school. A NOTTINGHAM school is celebrating after being named the best school in the East Midlands for using IT.

Djanogly City Academy in Sherwood Rise was also named joint winner of the national best whole school award at the ICT Excellence Awards 2008.

SPECIAL school in St Ann’s has been judged “outstanding” for the third time

Rosehill School, in Matthias Road, St Ann’s, was given the rating yesterday in the annual report of the Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills.