Compass points enterprise zones towards 2016

In the recent round of identification and designation of new Enterprise Zones (EZ) – announced by Chancellor Osborne at the end of the last month -  there are no fewer than 15 locations in Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk. One of which, Haverhill Research Park, is claimed by Cambridge but is actually in Suffolk. All of which, to varying degrees, property agents in the patch have substantial interests either directly as an appointed advisor to the development or an occupier seeking premises or, indirectly, in working for the owners or current or potential occupiers on nearby sites, estates or Parks in the pipeline or already established.

The LEPs in this region – the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Enterprise Partnership which delivered the 5 sites which comprise the Cambridge Compass Enterprise Zone area and the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership which succeeded in not only making the case for creating 10 new EZs in Suffolk and Norfolk under the Space to Innovate banner, but also in the extension of the current Great Yarmouth & Lowestoft (New Anglia) Enterprise Zone – have done more than a fine job in achieving these zones in the region.

Coming together in partnership with business and other local interests, these LEPs have successfully navigated the labyrinthian corridors of Whitehall to make the regional and local business cases to the national civil servants and government advisors who hold the purse strings when it comes to the creation of EZs and other sources of central funding.  

Anyone who has ever tendered for projects involving public money – whether professionally, many agents have dedicated teams to work in public sector projects and those which have to access public funds, or in a more civic or social role – can have nothing but praise for what the LEPs have pulled off for the eastern region.

But the plaudits shouldn’t stop there. Because while each LEP’s remit and accountability extends to its own area, technically, collectively the emphasis of each of the new EZs in playing to the attributes of each locale forms a chain of EZs which gives a complete picture of our region.

For instance, two new EZ locations in rural north Norfolk will have energy and the low carbon sectors in their sights. Whereas, one in King’s Lynn has agri-tech and food production at its core.  Equally, some of the new EZs in Suffolk play to the strengths of the ports and the A14 in positioning logistics and the supply-chain sectors. 

The Cambridge Compass Enterprise Zones gives 5 former fringe locations a chance to capitalise on the ‘Cambridge effect’ in terms of employment opportunities with 2 – Cambourne Business Park and Northstowe Phase 1 pointing the way forward in co-locating homes and jobs.

These new EZs come in to effect in spring next year (2016) and while I am no archetype Pollyanna, I welcome the way these will help point a way forward for this region which is far from inward looking in having Felixstowe port as the gateway to the rest of the world.

Will Mooney MRICS
Partner
Commercial, Cambridge

£8 million is now available for rural businesses looking to expand and promote tourism

Farming Minister George Eustice says another £8 million is now available from the Growth Programme for rural businesses looking to expand and promote tourism.  

Hopefully this new funding will help unlock the potential in farming businesses across the country, but understanding how to access the money does not seem straightforward.

The Growth Programme provides grants to aid projects in England which create jobs and help the rural economy grow. They are funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).  The Rural Payments Agency manages the grants, working with Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs).

However, the LEPs are not well equipped to manage the process of handling these funds.  In the past similar grant schemes have been various handled centrally by DEFRA and then by the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) and following their demise in 2010, by the newly created LEPs.  

LEPs are a rather strange invention of the last government which simply scrapped the old RDAs for ideological reasons and then left it to local authorities and businesses to set up their own LEPs.  This has proved a difficult task and now these bodies are being tasked with coordinating the delivery of funds such as the EAFRD which will prove a big challenge. 

Having looked at the website for the Heart of the South West, which is the LEP covering Somerset and Devon, there is no obvious reference to this latest tranche of funding although in the August newsletter, rural businesses are signposted to the LEADER scheme that is described as “one element of the Rural Development Programme for England, funded by the EU and Defra. 

“There is in the region of £12 million of funding available for projects that meet the eligibility criteria throughout most of rural Devon and Somerset, and the funding is available until December 2020.

“Grants will be available to support the local rural economy, and will be particularly aimed at increasing farm productivity, developing micro and small enterprises and farm diversification, rural tourism, rural services, cultural and heritage activity and increasing forestry productivity.”

The funding is being administered by eight Local Action Groups (LAGs), each covering a specific area and focused on the things that matter most to their local economies. For Somerset you are directed to contact www.somersetleader.org.uk which covers the LAGs for Western Somerset; the Heart of Wessex; parts of Making It Local; and the Levels and Moors. 

So, if you are a Somerset farming business interested in getting hold of some of this funding I suggest that in the first instance you contact the Somerset LEADER scheme in the hope they will have some idea about how you can access them.


James Stephen MRICS FAAV
Partner
Rural Practice Chartered Surveyor, Wells
T: 01749 683381
E: james.stephen@carterjonas.co.uk