Businesses ready for take-off
A Typhoon on the runway at Warton, site of one of the new enterprise zones
Two thousand new jobs will be created at a new Lancashire hub of world-class manufacturers in the next three years.
The Lancashire Enterprise Zone will also see tens of millions of pounds pumped into creating a home for the world’s leading minds in advanced manufacturing at BAE Systems’ jet factories at Warton and Samlesbury, near Preston.
Today, the Evening Post can reveal that high-level talks are ongoing with a number of high-profile manufacturers, including companies setting up in the UK for the first time, with a view to being on site by the summer.
It is understood that logistics companies handling high-value products are also keen to move to the Warton development, due to its secure runway.
Edwin Booth, chairman of the county’s Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) which is masterminding the Zone, which launches in April, said it aimed to create 2,000 new jobs in the next three years.
He said: “I am incredibly encouraged by the calibre of people we are talking with which have surpassed my own expectations.
“This will not be about moving jobs around from other parts of Lancashire, it is about bringing genuinely new jobs here and building upon what we have here.
“In our aerospace industry, we have a real gem in Lancashire, something where we genuinely lead the world and I think people are waking up to that potential now.”
Phil Halsall, chief executive of Lancashire County Council which is a member of the LEP, said it was ready to flex its financial muscle to get building work underway at Warton and Samlesbury as quickly as is necessary.
The Enterprise Zone will see businesses moving to the site given tax breaks, relaxed planning laws and super-fast broadband to attract big players bringing thousands of new jobs.
He said he and officials from BAE had held talks with some of the world’s biggest advanced manufacturers, including aerospace, energy and automotive.
The County Hall chief said: “All of the discussions we have had with various organisations are very positive.
“These are businesses which will be new to Lancashire at the moment, a number of them are new to the UK as well.
“This is not about taking jobs from Blackburn or Lancaster and moving them to Warton and Samlesbury, it is about bringing genuinely new, highly-skilled jobs.”
An area which could fit the pitch at Preston North End’s Deepdale stadium 90 times over has been set aside across the two BAE sites.
Including land off Lytham Road, Warton and a 180-acre chunk of the Samlesbury site, including its now-redundant airfield, will be developed.
The research and development facilities at Warton have already been used by a number of companies for research into motor sport engineering and sports science, with strong interest from a number of other companies including “a global aerospace company”, “a global general engineering company” and “a world-class machine tool manufacturer” in establishing operations on the site.
Both Fylde and Ribble Valley councils, which are the planning authorities for the two sites, are close to finalising an agreement for Local Development Orders which will relax planning laws in the area.
Coun Trevor Fiddler, the portfolio holder for development on Fylde Council, said he hoped development could start within months but wants a long-term plan put together to develop the entire Warton site.
He said: “We need a long-term masterplan, this cannot be about short-term fixes.”
Babs Murphy, chief executive of the North and Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, said those pushing forward with the Zone had made “fantastic in-roads.”
She said: “We want to see this land ready so that when we have an investor ready there are real plans in place which will see them on site within a matter of months, we do not want them to be hanging around.
“It is up to the local councils involved in this to pull together to make sure that happens.
“The Zone will bring massive benefits and real high-value jobs to Lancashire which is exactly what this area and its people need.”
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Comments
There are 20 comments to this article
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fazbabz
Friday, March 2, 2012 at 11:18 AMDoes anyone living locally know more about the 'Retail" aspect of this enterprise zone? Anything this size won't just be factories. Infrastructure already in place, motorway access in 5 minutes, lots of room for parking. Ikea, Trafford Park, Restaurants, Cinemas. It seems to make money elsewhere and thats what the purpose of this exercise is. In the Ribble Valley, surely not? Is that where the "relaxed planning" comes in?
brookss4
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 06:39 PMin reality all will happen is existing business will move there, and pay even less tax. amazingly you are actually right GB the inland revenue does allow big business to get away with paying the right tax. Ask Goldman Sachs and Vodafone. Guess you wish you had an accountant as bent as them.
brookss4
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 06:37 PM#11 wow what a big contribution you made. if your logic is correct then we would have negative GDP, go back to economics101 before you make silly comments like that. if unemployment is a shocking 8.5% this means 91.5% are employed.
BikerBoy
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 04:18 PMCobra427! Yes, I left last year after 39 years and I'm loving my new found freedom. However, there were people who left thinking they should jump before they are pushed and people who's wives have said' go and get another job' instead of sitting around the house all day. Friends who said 6 months ago they would not leave and are 55 this year are now applying to go because they think they will be worse off if they wait to be made redundant and its probably inevitable anyway that they will be going. Its different for each person. and feciko, an aerospace company setting up at Samlesbury or Warton which is going to support BAE as a sub contractor is not going to the expense of training people up when experienced people are available, so no, it won't help the 2.7 milliion unemployed, thats the governments job, unfortunately!
feciko
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 02:26 PMjonh - right so where are all these jobs that Cameron said that "private" business are to make ....not very forthcoming as yet are they ....once again its our Tax money that is having to make a difference here, don't see many of Davids friends putting their hand in their pockets to help us out do you. f ex BAE employees take up these "new" positions in these new business parks then this is really going to help the 2.7 million unemployed isn't it ...to right we have a right to moan, Cameron says one minute the bankers cannot take their bonuses, then when the Tory Party money lenders give him the orders, he says we haven't to "bash the bankers", hypocrisy its called pure and simples innit ...
jonh
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 01:43 PMGod, Preston is, once again, like a "Just Fancy That" from Private Eye! "Jobs Cut in Preston - Prestonians complain" "tax money used to generate jobs in Preston - Prestonians complain!" I guess it is because the sites are currently occupied by BAE that is dragging out the real thickos of the North!!
cobra427
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 10:39 AMdont think there were many reluctant to leave. After many years service the vast majority like myself were over 55 and received 18mths salary as severence pay and a good pension package
BikerBoy
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 10:27 AMI'm sure there will be plenty of takers for jobs in this business park from all the people who have left BAE Systems who were reluctant to leave but now see an opportunity for further employment in the same line of business and I'm sure that fact has not escaped the BAE management. I'm sure the companies who base themselves at Warton and Samlesbury will not want to pay for re-settlement of workers from a lot further afield when there are perfectly good workers on the doorstep.
feciko
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 09:39 AMThere will be as many local businesses wanting to move into these sites as ones from outside the area, that is why I would dispute the "jobs created" figures, but if we get half the number quoted, it would be a good thing for the area ....but lets not "flower" it up, there is a long way to go yet ...and if the banks don't lend the money (QE) to business, it ain't going to happen ...
bignorm
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 01:15 AMi have read quite a few of brookss4's comments on several articles, seems to have an opinion on a lot of things but doesnt have much of an input into the discussion, any enterprise large or small is welcome at lean times, and remember #9 there are a darn site more people drawing on the resources than they contribute to the system
Gardenbuddy
Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 08:46 PMSorry, I think you've got it wrong way round No 9, HMRC are the fiddlers, like the teachers manipulating the exam results, the immigration officials doctoring the figures, the GP's fiddling their patient lists, makes us private sector bods appear whiter than white.
brookss4
Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 07:27 PM#8 but i bet your accountant means you dont pay as much in as perhaps you should.
Gardenbuddy
Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 06:25 PMFair means, or foul, now the order of the day, yes, I agree. My point was that the ' public ' purse is filled by the ' private ' sector ( and a few numpty self-employed like me )
Herbert Birdsfoot
Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 04:17 PMThe clue is in the phrase 'public purse'. Don't get me wrong. Am all for Keynesian economics. Is just that government et al seem unwilling to acknowledge out loud that this is the line they are pursuing. Seem quite happy for this idea of the private sector rescuing us from recession to take hold while the reality - huge subsidy from you, me and every other taxpayer - happens under the radar. Candour and a level playing field across the entire economy would be best, wouldn't it?
Gardenbuddy
Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 03:51 PMRemind me again, where does the money come from for the ' public purse ?'
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