News
January 2003
Chancellor announces new measures for business
In his Pre-Budget report, delivered on November 27, Chancellor Gordon Brown revised his forecast for UK economic growth in 2002 to 1.6 per cent, from 2-2.5 per cent in April. However, he predicted that the rate of growth would rise to 2.5-3 per cent in 2003 and to 3-3.5 per cent in 2004. Manufacturing output is expected to rise by 1.75-2.25 per cent this year and business investment by 2.75-3.25 per cent.
Mr Brown has revised the $4.5 billion surplus forecast for 2002-03 in the April Budget to a projected deficit of $9 billion, with a further deficit of $7.5 billion for 2003-04. However, thereafter the economy is expected to return to surplus. Public sector borrowing for 2002-03, predicted in April to be $16.5 billion, has been revised to $30 billion. It will rise to $36 billion in 2003-04 before falling back again to $28.5 billion.
The report gave Mr Brown the opportunity to announce a number of new measures aimed at encouraging business and enterprise. One of these is the first radical review in 20 years of the tax regime for offshore funds, which will see tax regulations simplified and harmonised with those applicable to UK-based funds. This is expected to provide a boost to the UK fund management industry and to widen the range of funds available to UK investors.
In other tax-related matters, Mr Brown is considering proposals to reform the treatment of capital assets, the use of losses and trading and investment companies. Rules governing Value Added Tax, employee benefit trusts and industrial building allowances will be tightened up. Companies will be guaranteed a deduction in corporation tax to cover the cost of providing shares for employee share schemes. According to the Treasury, the deduction will be available for schemes where employees were taxed on the value of shares, and is likely to be more generous than an equivalent scheme in the US.
About 2,000 areas with high unemployment have been designated Enterprise Areas. Companies buying business premises in these areas will pay no stamp duty and will benefit from relaxed planning regulations. The move is intended to target inner city regeneration in particular. The loan guarantee scheme for small businesses has been extended, and there will be a review of the rules governing employers’ liability insurance. A Modern Apprenticeship Taskforce has been set up, with funding of $195 million to allow employer pilot programmes to be extended to a second year. The scheme pays employers to give workers time off to train. In the North Sea, royalty taxes on oil and gas have been abolished.
For workers, the personal income tax allowance and National Insurance contribution thresholds for 2003-04 have been frozen at 2002-03 levels. Proposed new tax and NI incentives are designed to encourage parents to return to work. On pensions, the tax-free lump sum payment to retirees, and tax relief on pension contributions for employers, employees and the self-employed, will remain unchanged. The government is, however, planning to review pension provision in the long term, and in mid-December published a green paper consultation document.
Mr Brown proposes to increase the tax on landfill waste in a move intended to send a "significant long-term signal" to industry and local authorities. The tax will rise from $19.50 to $24 a tonne by 2005-06, and could almost treble to $52.50 a tonne within ten years. The extended time scale for the changes is intended to give businesses time to adapt. This so-called ‘green tax’ is intended to encourage everyone, from large companies to householders, to reduce the amount of waste they produce and to recycle more. In another environmentally friendly initiative, Mr Brown cut duty on bioethanol road fuel by 30c a litre.
Review of patent rules will encourage innovation
Also announced in Mr Brown’s report was an ‘innovation review’, led by science minister Lord Sainsbury, that will investigate tax and patent incentives in a bid to encourage research. The government already offers companies tax credits for research and development; the new review will look at a range of issues, from skills levels to ways in which regulatory procedures could be simplified. A separate panel will look at the links between universities and business, while a third consultation exercise will look at proposed changes to the patent laws.
In the first significant update of the regulations in 25 years, UK patent law will be harmonised with European Union rules, ensuring that UK businesses will continue to be able to make a single application for patents valid in up to 24 European countries. UK businesses applied for just under 5,000 such European patents in 2001, covering on average 14-15 countries, making the UK the third largest user of the system. The changes will, for example, encourage the investigation of new medicinal uses for known pharmaceuticals, and will make it easier for businesses to maintain and protect their patents once granted.
UK entrepreneurs unfazed by global downturn
As well as encouraging companies to make better use of the UK’s science base, the government has allocated $112 million to promote enterprise education in schools and colleges. Children as young as eight will help to run companies and take a cut of the profits, in an effort to foster a US-style entrepreneurial spirit, and students will spend time with local businesses, learning commercial skills such as pricing, marketing and salesmanship.
Entrepreneurs in the UK are faring well in the face of global recession, according to a new worldwide survey of entrepreneurial activity co-funded by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). The Global Entrepreneurship 2002 shows that entrepreneurial activity is down worldwide but, of the G8 nations, only the US and Canada have fared better than the UK in maintaining levels of activity. The survey, the biggest of its kind, questioned 20,000 entrepreneurs in the UK alone.
Small businesses are doing well in creating jobs: 55 per cent of start-up companies create up to 11 jobs apiece. More people - 43 per cent compared with 40 per cent the previous year - feel they have the skills required to set up a business. There is a gender gap: men in the UK are twice as likely to start up a business than women, although the gap has narrowed by nearly 40 per cent over the past year, and in one region - Yorkshire and Humber - women outstrip their male counterparts in entrepreneurial activity.
The UK’s entrepreneurial culture has encouraged DuPont of the US, the world’s fourth largest chemicals company, to consider relocating its European corporate ventures programme there from the Netherlands. "I was surprised by the level of entrepreneurship in the UK. In continental Europe … companies… appear to have less of an entrepreneurial intent," said Marlon Hiralal, head of the programme. Of eight European businesses in which DuPont is currently considering an investment, one is from Switzerland and seven are from the UK. The company takes stakes in small businesses in areas such as new materials, electronic chemicals and coatings, and helps them to grow in return for new ideas that could help its own expansion efforts. UK companies on DuPont’s shortlist are thought to include a number of spin-offs from Oxford and Cambridge universities.
Science spending to keep on rising
The DTI has unveiled new budgets for science spending from 2003 up to 2006. New allocations have been made for a number of leading-edge technologies and research projects that will keep the UK at the forefront of scientific innovation. The UK - with just 1 per cent of the world’s population - already funds 4.5 per cent of the world’s scientific research, produces 8 per cent of scientific papers and receives 9 per cent of the citations.
Under the new spending programme, $60 million will be allocated for research into stem cells; $204 million to develop new drugs and diagnostic techniques under the genomics research programme; and £23 million to build on recent advances in brain science. The e-science sector will receive $173 million to develop the next generation of computers, and development programmes for new technologies that can be applied to a wide range of scientific and industrial uses will be expanded with an injection of $90 million in funding. A further $42 will be allocated for research into sustainable energy, and $30 million will be spent on using science to help rural areas. There will also be a $45 million package to help PhD students and graduates acquire business skills. By 2005-06, science spending will have more than doubled from the levels seen in 1997-98.
In the meantime, the UK’s largest biomedical science park and business incubator has opened in Nottingham, in the East Midlands. BioCity Nottingham, housed in 130,000 sq ft of laboratory and office space in premises donated by German chemicals group BASF, aims to challenge Cambridge in Eastern England as a centre for the commercialisation of biomedical research. Seven companies have already signed up to take space at the centre, and its management claims to be in discussions with another nine.
In the North East, an e-science research centre has been established to provide infrastructure for the new electronic superhighway known as the Grid. The building is situated on the campus of Durham University, and funding has been provided by local Regional Development Agency, One NorthEast. In all, the RDA is providing $27.3 million in funding for science and technology research over the next three years, in a bid to create businesses and jobs and boost the profile of science in the region.
A team of researchers from Manchester University, in North West England, has won a prestigious Körber European Science Award for its work in the field of tissue engineering. The prize includes an award of $750,000 to the university, which will enable the team, led by Professor Mark Ferguson, to continue its work on scarless healing. Another research team from the North West - including a member apiece from the universities of Manchester, Liverpool and UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology) - has won a DTI Beacon award worth $2.5 million that will fund research into the detection and treatment of heart disease and cancer. The award was one of six made under the DTI’s Harnessing Genomics programme, a $38 million development scheme that was set up in 2001.
The Northwest Development Agency, meanwhile, has launched a new website to promote the science sector in the region. The site - at www. northwestscience.co.uk - provides news from companies and academic institutions in the North West, together with information on science parks and business incubators.
Government pledges $8.3bn for transport improvements
Transport secretary Alastair Darling has unveiled an $8.3 billion plan to tackle congestion on the UK’s roads, as part of its ten-year plan for transport. A number of motorways and A-roads will be widened and a number of schemes will be undertaken to deal with local bottlenecks. In addition, 19 major local transport schemes, including light rail services, new public transport interchanges, dedicated bus corridors and improvement in accessibility to town centres, have been given the go-ahead, subject to statutory procedures.
The plans include widening of the M6 motorway between Manchester and Birmingham from three to four lanes, widening the M1 in the East Midlands to four lanes between Leicester and Chesterfield, and the provision of crawler lanes for trucks and junction improvements on sections of the M4 and M5 near Bristol in South West England. The A453 highway near Nottingham in the East Midlands will be improved, and the A1 between Morpeth and Alnwick in the North East and the A303 in the South West will be upgraded from single to dual carriageway. A $275 million, 2.1km tunnel will carry the new A303 past the World Heritage site of Stonehenge in Wiltshire, protecting the ancient monument from traffic.
More than $1 billion has been allocated to expand Manchester’s Metrolink tram system and to develop a tram system in Liverpool, both in North West England. A further $2.9 billion will be spent on local schemes that include bypasses, road improvements, bus priority routes, park and ride schemes an cycleways.
Freight levels hold steady
The number of road goods vehicles travelling from the UK to mainland Europe in the third quarter of 2002 was 621,100, virtually unchanged from the previous quarter but 3 per cent up on the corresponding quarter of 2001. Of this total, 447,800 were powered vehicles. The number of powered vehicles fell by 2 per cent from the previous quarter but the number of unaccompanied trailers rose by 2 per cent. Both were up 3 per cent year-on-year. Powered vehicles registered in the UK accounted for 27 of the total, compared with 28 per cent in the previous quarter and 30 per cent a year earlier.
The twin ports of Grimsby and Immingham on Humberside, in Yorkshire and Humber, have been named by the DTI as the UK’s busiest port for the second year running. The new $62 million Humber International Terminal has already handled 10 million tonnes of cargo, just 29 months after opening. Preparation work has started on a second stage of the terminal, which will cost more than $30 million.
Just under 54 million tonnes of cargo were carried on the UK’s inland waterways in 2001, according to the Department of Transport. The volume of goods moved (the tonnage of cargo lifted multiplied by the distance travelled) amounted to 1.9 billion tonne-kilometres. Crude petroleum and petroleum products accounted for 74 per cent of all waterborne freight. Water transport, including coastwise, one-port (mainly offshore oil) and inland waters traffic accounted for 6 per cent of goods lifted (measured in tonnes) and 24 per cent of goods moved (measured in tonne-kilometres) by all modes of transport in the UK in 2001. The busiest inland waterway was the River Thames, which handled 20.8 million tonnes of good lifted and 0.8 billion tonne-kilometres of goods moved.
Manchester Airport in North West England, the third largest airport in the UK, is planning to spend $30 million to upgrade its ground-based transport links. It has unveiled a ten-year programme to upgrade the road system linking it to the surrounding motorway network, including improvements to Junction 6 of the M56 motorway and an additional lane between junctions 5 and 6, and a new dual carriageway running from Terminal 2 to the A538. The scheme will also improve access to the nearby Davenport Green Business Park. In a separate development, Qatar Airways has announced that it is to launch four-times-a-week direct flights from Manchester to Doha, the capital of Qatar, beginning next summer.
Communications Bill promises greater deregulation
The government has set out its final proposals for a new regulatory framework for the media and communications industries in a Communications Bill, published at the end of November. The Bill, which has been under review since May 2002, is intended to bring regulations up to date and introduce greater flexibility in response to changes in markets and technology.
The Bill’s key aims are to ensure universal access to a choice of high-quality services; deregulation to promote competitiveness and investment; self-regulation of the industry, backed up by tough measures to protect plurality and diversity; and ensuring that public service principles remain at the heart of British broadcasting. A new, single regulator - the Office of Communications (OFCOM) - will replace the five agencies that currently exist. Among other measures, licensing for telecommunications systems will be replaced by a new regulatory regime for electronic communication networks; provision will be made for the trading of radio spectrum; and the rules on media ownership will be reformed and deregulated. The communications industry currently accounts for 300,000 jobs in the UK and $18 billion of investment every year.
Meanwhile, customers in the UK are signing up for broadband fast-access internet services at a faster rate than their counterparts in France, Germany, Sweden and the US, according to Oftel, the current telecoms regulator. Although broadband is not yet as widespread in the UK as in other key markets, new connections are reaching 28,000 a week. Prices for broadband services in the UK are on a par with other leading markets and in some cases, particularly for business, the UK has the cheapest prices of any country. There are currently around 200 service providers offering either DSL or cable modem connections, giving rise to a high level of competition.
The national convention of the Call Centre Association (CCA), held in Glasgow, Scotland at the end of November, saw the launch of a new professional qualification for staff working in customer contact and call centres, an important sector of the UK economy. The Call Centre Professional (CCP) accreditation will be available to personnel at both agent/adviser and management level; the management diploma has been developed in partnership with Nottingham Trent University.
Specialist support for manufacturers and chemical industry
The tenth and final Regional Centre of Manufacturing Excellence has opened in the East of England. The centre, which completes the establishment of the Manufacturing Advisory Service in England and Wales, will provide practical help and advice for small and medium-sized manufacturers on issues such as best practice and technology. A specialist team will help diagnose problems and provide solutions through an enquiry service and company visits. Based at Ford’s R&D centre at Dunton in Essex, the centre will help some 14,000 manufacturing enterprises across the region.
Meanwhile, a new industry-led taskforce is to be established to encourage innovation and growth in the chemicals industry. The Chemistry Leadership Council (CLC) will set up a Chemicals Innovation Centre to act as a hub for specialist knowledge transfer, will help plug skills gaps, review marketing and help to promote the UK as a location for chemical start-ups. Nearly $40 billion worth of chemicals are manufactured in the UK every year. The industry contributes $3.6 billion to the balance of trade and directly employs 170,000 people.
Future of energy sector is blowing in the wind
Minister for Energy Brian Wilson has launched a consultation document aimed at boosting the development of the UK’s offshore wind industry. "The potential contribution [of wind power] towards our energy needs is enormous and this, in turn, will underpin a substantial manufacturing industry. With a domestic market in place, we will also be able to contribute to developments around the world. The global market for offshore renewables is predicted to be worth $12 billion by 2007, mainly in Europe," said the minister.
The Future Offshore document proposes that, in the short term, wind farm development should be focused on three main zones: the Thames Estuary; the Greater Wash, in Eastern England; and the west coast, from the Solway Firth in Scotland down to the coast of North Wales. Strategic environmental assessments of the three areas will be carried out and new exploration licenses will be given for sites beyond the legal 12-mile limit from the shore. A new bidding process for wind farms will also be introduced. "In theory, the three strategic areas could source enough electricity to power the whole of Britain, albeit intermittently," said Mr Wilson. "Realistically we need a balanced energy policy but there is no doubt about the scale of opportunity if our natural resources can be properly harnessed."
Mr Wilson also launched a new CD-ROM compiled to attract new players to the North sea oil and gas industry. The Promote UK disk provides a brief guide to the North Sea, its geology, the regulatory framework of the industry and its tax regime. It also provides a sample of exploration prospects available for licensing, undeveloped discoveries and future opportunities. The government has given the industry a helping hand by raising first-year capital allowances from 25 per cent to 100 per cent, promoting activity in unexploited areas and enabling faster asset trading. The CD-ROM is available from the Department of Trade and Industry’s website, at www.og.dti.gov.uk.
Food and drink exporters give cause for cheer
The UK’s exports of food and drink rose by 2 per cent last year, indicating that the industry had successfully recovered from the foot-and-mouth crisis of 2001. Exports of lamb and pork rose 9 per cent in the first half of 2002 to approach pre-crisis levels, according to Food in Britain, the industry’s marketing agency. Across all sectors, exports to other European Union countries led the way, rising 3 per cent year-on-year, although exports to non-EU markets were down 1 per cent overall. One of the strongest performers was British beer, which is exported all over the world.
US-based food giant Kelloggs is to build a new warehouse on a 17-acre site at Trafford Park in Manchester, North West England. The company, best known for its range of breakfast cereals, opened its first European factory at Trafford Park in 1938. The factory remains Kelloggs’ largest manufacturing facility, and the largest ready-to-eat cereals plant anywhere in the world. The company also has its European headquarters at Trafford Park. Construction work has already begun on the 325,000 sq ft warehouse, and is scheduled for completion in spring this year.
Another US food company, Rich Products Corporation of Buffalo, New York, has expanded its UK headquarters and opened a new cookie manufacturing plant at Kidderminster in the West Midlands. The plant - the company’s first manufacturing facility in the UK - will employ 30 people and will produce cookies for supermarket, food service and bakery customers throughout the country.
New plans for office developments
Available office space in the M25 market (the area bounded by London’s orbital motorway) rose by 1 per cent in the third quarter of 2002 to stand at 8.9 million sq ft, according to a quarterly report from DTZ Research. More than half (52 per cent) of this was newly built or refurbished accommodation. The total amount of speculative office space under construction was 0.9 million sq ft but, overall, take-up fell by 12 per cent during the quarter, to 320,000 sq ft. There was increasing pressure on prime rents, and many areas saw them fall over the three months.
A further 270,000 sq ft of space has come onto the market in Newbury, Berkshire in the Thames Valley, where telecoms company Vodafone is disposing of 35 surplus buildings. The disposal represents 10 per cent of the town’s total stock and adds to the 4.5 million sq ft of space already available on the M4 market. The buildings range from 1,000 sq ft to 35,000 sq ft in size and are a mix of new and refurbished stock. Vodafone is moving to a purpose-built 500,000 sq ft headquarters building on the edge of town.
A former GlaxoSmithKline site in Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire is being developed to offer a range of business accommodation. Plans for the 9.4-acre Mundells Centre site include a 200,000 sq ft warehouse development that will include 19,000 sq ft of office space spread over three storeys. Work is scheduled to take just 12 weeks, and the developers are looking for a prelet with rent of around $11.60 per sq ft. In the East Midlands, developers in Nottingham are planning a speculative office and industrial scheme at Junction 20 of the M1 motorway. Nearly 500,000 sq ft of space is planned at The Village. Work begins in March, with phase one involving seven buildings providing combined space of 38,000 sq ft. A new landmark office development is on the drawing board for Salford Quays in Manchester, North West England. The Lighthouse development, due for completion in November 2003, will provide 66,500 sq ft of high-quality space.
Two new 20,000 sq ft factory units are due to be built at St. Columb Major in Cornwall, South West England. Work on the $4 million development at Trekinning Business Park, which is expected to create up to 80 jobs, should be completed by the summer. St. Columb Major is already the location for the UK distribution centre of books and music retailer Borders [see picture]. In York, Yorkshire and Humber, meanwhile, 12,000 sq ft of prime office space is available at Northminster Business Park, while a 142,000 sq ft manufacturing facility incorporating offices, laboratories and warehouses is on the market at Clifton Moor, just half a mile from the city’s ring road. A new 30,000 sq ft IT Centre is to be built at York Science Park, providing new incubator space for high-tech start-ups.
Borders’ UK distribution centre, St. Columb Major, Cornwall
In Cardiff, the capital of Wales, a new industrial and office scheme could provide up to 1 million sq ft of business accommodation over the next 5-10 years. The development, at the 74-acre Capital Business Park, will kick off with 110,000 sq ft of speculative industrial space. The site is just two miles away from Cardiff’s rail freight terminal. At nearby Newport, a new 54,000 sq ft office building, CS 1000, is available at Celtic Springs Business Park near Junction 28 of the M4 motorway. Celtic Springs is an assisted area and therefore qualifies for government financial incentives; it is also one of the six BT e-locations in Wales. On the adjoining Cleppa 4 site, two new developments - a 30,000 sq ft office building and an office village comprising units of 3,000-10,000 sq ft - are due for completion in June 2003.
In Glasgow in Scotland, the backers of a $750 million waterfront regeneration project plan to increase the office element of their scheme from 600,000 sq ft to 2 million sq ft, due to strong demand for space from the financial services sector. The Glasgow Harbour development covers 120 acres of redundant former dock and shipyard land on the north bank of the River Clyde.
In London, the new 590ft Swiss Re tower - dubbed ‘the erotic gherkin’ - was topped out in December with a spectacular light show. Construction of the 40-storey tower, designed by architect Sir Norman Foster, is on schedule for completion in October 2003, with fitting-out of the lower floors to begin in the summer. Insurer Swiss Re is occupying floors 2-15 while renting out the rest of the building to tenants.
Co Durham attracts diversity of investment
French company ALTIS Semiconductors has named Tosoh Quartz, based at Greencroft Industrial Estate in County Durham, North East England, as its best materials supplier, from among 600 companies worldwide. Tosoh, which has worked with ALTIS for the past three years, is a leading supplier of quartz glass products to the semiconductor industry and is part of a global chemical company that has diversified into high value-added businesses such as scientific instrumentation and quartzware. Its other clients include Atmel, Infineon, Ericsson and Philips, and exports account for 95 per cent of its turnover.
Two more companies based in County Durham are expanding. Gliderol Roller Doors Ltd, established in 1988 as the county’s first inward investment from Australia, has invested $3 million in a new 46,000 sq ft facility at Peterlee South West Industrial Estate. The company has more than doubled its floorspace, and is planning to add substantially to its 54-strong workforce. Gliderol manufactures garage doors and automatic door openers for the domestic market and for export. Clients include Bellway plc and Persimmon Homes.
Meanwhile Alexander Technologies Europe (ATE) is to invest more than $100,000 in an expansion of its 16,000 sq ft facility at the same industrial estate. The company, which assembles rechargeable batteries for the communications industry, is investing in new equipment and plans to create 12 new jobs.
Bexleyheath is best for business
Bexleyheath, in south-east London, was the most profitable town in the UK for small and medium-sized enterprises in 2001, according to an annual survey by business analyst Experian. While nationally the average profit margin for SMEs fell from 3 per cent in 2000 to 2.8 per cent in 2001, companies in Bexleyheath saw their profit margins rise from 13.5 per cent to 15.8 per cent. This was the second year in a row that the town has taken the title of most profitable.
The survey collected data from more than 100,000 small and medium-sized businesses in 400 towns. It found that most of the 50 most profitable locations were in southern England, with 34 of them in the South East. However, 57 of the 400 towns failed to make a profit at all over the year, three more than in 2000. Those recording the greatest decline in profit margins included Brentwood in Essex, Tamworth in Staffordshire, Wallingford and Abingdon in Oxfordshire, Winchester in Hampshire and Royston in Hertfordshire.
Around the regions
Low-cost air carrier JET 2, a subsidiary of aviation services company Dart Group plc, has chosen Leeds-Bradford International Airport, in Yorkshire and Humber, as its new base. It will commence operations in February and by Easter 2003 will be operating a fleet of four Boeing 737-700 aircraft to a range of European destinations, including Barcelona, Amsterdam and Milan.
Leeds Development Agency helped 213 companies find new premises in the city in the period April 2000-March 2001, helping to create 900 jobs. Many of these were in the financial and business services sector, an area in which the northern city excels, while many others were in the media and communications industries. Companies can now carry out their own online search for premises in Leeds, with the agency’s website (www.leeds.gov.uk) carrying a comprehensive database of commercial and industrial property. In its first two months of operation the service has attracted more than 200 searches.
A new networking group is to be set up to represent the interests of more than 400 silicon design companies based in and around Bristol, in South West England. The Bristol Silicon Network (BSN) is supported by the National Microelectronics Institute and the South West of England RDA. It will hold regular regional forums to address issues of concern to the industry and enable the exchange of ideas.
In Northern Ireland, Rixell, the Omagh-based subsidiary of Taiwanese technology company Ritek, is gearing up to meet new orders from European customers that will see it produce more than 100,000 CD-R (recordable/rewriteable) disks every day. The company, which currently employs 128 people, will have 27 production lines capable of producing 17 million disks a month when it reaches its full capacity. Ritek, the world’s biggest manufacturer of CDs, has invested some $42 million in the company, which is based at Doogary Road Industrial Estate. It also owns Rixell’s sister company, Multimedia Info-Tech, which has been established in the Northern Irish capital Belfast for more than five years and currently produces more than six million disks annually.
Jade Software Corporation of New Zealand, Australasia’s most successful software company, has located its European headquarters in York, Yorkshire and Humber. A new British subsidiary, Jade Direct Ltd, has begun operations at York Science Park. Jade produces application development and systems management software, and has clients in the healthcare, higher education, ports and banking sectors. It has recently won two major contracts in northern England, one with rail freight operator EWS, the other with Skipton Building Society.
The North West Development Agency (NWDA) has provided nearly $3 million in funding for a new speculative office development in Liverpool city centre. The development, at 101 Old Hall Street, will offer 140,000 sq ft of Grade A space in Liverpool’s central business district.
In Sunderland, North East England, 500,000 sq ft of new office space is planned for a city centre site, in a $420 million development that could create up to 6,000 jobs. The masterplan for the development, on the site of the former Vaux brewery on a cliff edge overlooking the River Wear, includes more than 1,000 apartments, 90,000 sq ft of café, leisure and retail space and pedestrian piazzas. It has been designed by leading British architect Piers Gough CBE.
Also in the North East, a new centre of excellence for the aviation engineering industry is to be established at Newcastle Airport. The $2.5 million Newcastle Aviation Academy is supported by a complex partnership between local development agencies and academic institutions from around the country, including Kingston University, Newcastle College and City of Bristol College. It aims to create a pool of skilled aviation engineers and will offer degree courses, supported by classroom and workshop facilities. It will open in June 2003, with the first degree courses commencing in October.
E-mail marketing and customer intelligence company CheetahMail, based in New York, has set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in Weybridge, Surrey, South East England. CheetahMail UK will market the company’s proprietary platform, which allows for real-time data and results measurement, together with consultative and strategic services.
Net2Phone, a provider of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services based in Newark, New Jersey, has launched an expanded hub in London to process traffic within Europe and the Middle East. The company provides VoIP services to consumer and business customers worldwide, providing links between computers, telephones and broadband devices over IP networks.
Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals, the UK manufacturing arm of H Lundbeck A/s of Denmark, has opened a new pharmaceuticals plant at Seal Sands on Teesside, North East England. The $80 million facility will make Escitalopram, the active ingredient in Lundbeck’s new anti-depressant drug Cipralex. It uses new technology in the form of a large-scale simulated moving bed (SMB) unit, claimed to be one of the largest in the world.
Plans have been announced for a new $5 million business park on a three-acre site in Scunthorpe, Yorkshire and Humber. The Parkway Business Park will be developed in two phases over a three-year period, with the first units ready for occupation by spring 2003. The development could create up to 100 new jobs.
Ecolab Inc of St. Paul’s, Minnesota is to acquire Adams Healthcare of Leeds, Yorkshire and Humber, for $24.5 million. Adams Healthcare is a subsidiary of Medical Solutions plc and a leading supplier of hospital hygiene products. Ecolab specialises in cleaning, sanitation, maintenance and repair services for the hospitality, institutional and industrial markets.
Buderus Heiztechnik GmbH of Germany, a market leader in environmentally friendly condensing boilers, has acquired Boulter Boilers, based in Ipswich, Eastern England, for around $13 million. Boulter, which employs 96 people and which has projected sales of $16 million for the current year, has its own distribution network and offers services and training for local installers.
Wales has pulled off a marketing coup in securing the right to stage the final leg of the prestigious World Rally Championship for the next four years. As part of the sponsorship deal, the Rally of Great Britain will be renamed the Wales Rally GB. The deal is expected to raise the profile of Wales globally and to provide a boost to tourism. It will also act as a catalyst for development in fields such as high-performance engineering, new automotive technologies and sector-specific R&D. A number of international companies have already expressed interest in initiating projects in the principality, and the overall direct economic benefits of the move could amount to more than $75 million, according to the Welsh Development Agency.