Location:
Located approximately 100 miles directly West of London, the sub-region is comprised of Bristol at its economic centre, the world heritage city of Bath and key growth towns including Weston-super Mare, Portishead and Clevedon.

Transportation Services:
Port: Seaport at Avonmouth, Royal Portbury on the Bristol Channel. One of the UK's most successful ports with dedicated motorway and rail access.
Airport: Bristol International Airport; located approximately 8 miles from Bristol City Centre.
Motorways: M4, M5 to London, Birmingham, Exeter, Cardiff within two hours.
Rail links: Bristol Temple Meads, Bristol Parkway, Bath Spa, Weston-super-Mare provide connections to London and Birmingham in approx 1.5 hours.

Assisted Area:
Yes, Tier 3.

Other Kinds of Financial Assistance on Offer:
Companies may be eligible for assistance and training programmes such as West at Work (see www.westatwork.co.uk). Regional funding for collaborative research with higher education may also be available (see www.greatwesternresearch.ac.uk). A full directory of grant assistance is provided by Business Link: www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/gsd?site=106&r.s=reg

Available Sites Include:
Poplar Fields, Cabot Park, Avonmouth, Bristol. 0.75 to 11 acres. Planning consent for up to 162,000 sq ft (15,050 sq m) B8 distribution development. Design and build pre-let/pre-sale proposals from 20,000 sq ft upwards. Complete distribution solution. Excellent motorway links - 3 minutes from junction 18 M5, 10 minutes from M4 / M5 intersection.

Unit M2, RD Park, Kingsweston Lane, Avonmouth, Bristol BS1. 15-15 acres
Design and build packages are available on a freehold or leasehold basis. B1/B8 Distribution. New lease on terms to be agreed. Situated in the heart of the South West's largest distribution hub, the site offers unique access to established road, rail and sea services.

G-Park, Western Approach, Bristol 1 to 143 acres.
Approximately 1.26 million sq ft of B8 warehousing is occupied or under construction. Direct access to 80% of the UK in 4.5 hours. The total outline planning consent is for 2.35 million sq ft (218,315 sq m) of warehouse accommodation. Design and build packages are available on either freehold or leasehold basis.

Access 18, Avonmouth, Bristol, 0.5 to 212 acres.
Subject to planning, St Modwen are able to develop buildings on a design build basis from 10,000 sq ft (929 sq m) up to 600,000 sq ft (55,746 sq m) with the completed properties available to either purchase or lease. Freehold would be by way of 150 year leases at a peppercorn rent. Alternatively new full repairing and insuring leases for terms of years to be agreed. This site comprises approximately 212 acres (85.8 ha) industrial development land fronting Avonmouth Way/Kingsweston Lane, within 1 mile of Junction 18 of the M5/Junction 18a (M49).

Major Business Parks:
Aztec West Business Park, Almondsbury
Covering 68 hectares at the junction of the M5 motorway and the A38, this business park is now home to over 120 companies including The Royal Bank of Scotland, Orange, ST Microelectronics, The Environment Agency, Cornhill Direct and G E Capital Equipment Finance. Situated at the northern fringes of Greater Bristol, Aztec West is just 3 miles away from Bristol Parkway railway station and Bristol International Airport can be reached easily via the M5. Occupiers enjoy a mature parkland setting including a number of landscaped ponds. The business park also benefits from a number of onsite amenities, a central retail area, the Aztec Hotel and Black Sheep Pub, and the Hilton.

Temple Quarter, Bristol
Temple Quarter is one of the largest urban regeneration projects in the South West encompassing 46 hectares of land adjacent to Temple Meads Railway Station. The core Temple Quay site has already established itself as a prestigious new commercial heart of Bristol, providing state-of-the-art accommodation for high profile companies such as Bristol and West, Osborne Clark, BT and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Work has now begun on Temple Quay 2, a high-density mixed development that will provide new residential units, 60,000 sq m of new high quality offices, a range of waterfront cafes, restaurants and bars, as well as community facilities. Future plans include the project to transform the Grade I listed building of Temple Meads Railway Station into a state-of-the-art transport hub integrating heavy rail, light rapid transit, buses, taxis, airport coaches, car and ferry services.

Western Riverside, Bath
Bath Western Riverside is a significant brownfield regeneration project expected to deliver approximately 28 hectares of mixed use development to the west of Bath city centre. The project has an anticipated end value of around £1 billion and the masterplan includes new homes, high quality business space, and new state-of-the-art community and leisure facilities.

Locking Parklands, Weston-super-Mare
Locking Parklands, which is situated just south of the M5 on the south-eastern outskirts of Weston-super-Mare, will provide 25 hectares of high-quality business accommodation and up to 1,800 homes in mature landscaped parklands. The scheme will transform the former RAF Locking site into a new hi-tech business, residential and leisure community with new education and entertainment facilities offering a contemporary working and living environment. The development will provide businesses with state-of-the-art workspaces that can be created to suit a company's specific needs. Buildings of any size, from 1,000 sq ft to 100,000 sq ft, can be accommodated and all offices will be designed to the highest possible standards.

Science Parks:
Bristol-Bath Science Park (SPark) has recently been given planning permission for the proposed site on Bristol's east fringe. This will develop 21 hectares and include conferencing facilities, offices and an incubation centre. The new science park is expected to be comparable in size and scope to the best in the UK like Warwick, Cambridge, Oxford and Manchester. Work is to begin in 2008 and when complete the park is expected to create over 6,000 jobs.

SET Squared technology-related University-linked incubation units are available in central Bristol and Bath. See www.setsquared.co.uk for further information.

A further high-tech business start-up centre is proposed for Locking Parklands to the south west of Bristol.

Office Developments:
Existing developments providing high quality office space include Temple Quay (Bristol city centre), Harbourside (Bristol city centre), Aztec West (north Bristol fringe); Bath Business Park (out of town), Crescent Office Park (Bath out of town); Portishead Marina (town centre); Locking Castle (North Somerset). New developments to include: Temple Quay phase 2 (Bristol city centre), Bath Western Riverside (city centre), Locking Parklands (out of town).

Major Industries in the Area:
Aerospace and defence; advanced engineering; insurance and finance; professional and business services; media and creative industries; tourism; higher education; printing and publishing.

Major Companies in the Area:
Hewlett-Packard (HP Labs), AXA, Lloyds-TSB, BBC, Rolls-Royce, Airbus UK, Orange (PCS), Bank of Ireland Financial Services Ltd, Clerical Medical, HBOS Financial Services, Constellation Europe.

Advice and Assistance:
Our free relocation assistance service provided by the Invest West team offers help to locating companies. Services include: employment and population data, quality of life and local information, sites and premises search, introductions to key contacts and organisations, familiarisation tours and links to local authority services (planning, business rates etc).

Contact:
Ruth Thei, Inward Investment Officer, West of England Partnership, Wilder House, Wilder Street, Bristol, BS2 8PH. Tel: +44-(0)117-903 6876; e-mail: investwest@westofengland.org Web: www.investwest.org

Summary:
The West of England is one of the UK's premier business locations and is highly regarded for its business strengths, good access to markets, recruitment of qualified staff, and an excellent quality of life. Benefiting from a skilled workforce, four prestigious universities and high productivity rates, the West of England's economy is very competitive and contributes over a quarter of the South West region's economic output. Existing strengths and projected contributions to the regional and national economy have enabled the West of England to become a UK Growth Point. Bristol has also been awarded the designation of Core City, and, in 2005, the accolade of Science City, one of only six English city-regions recognised for their outstanding role in this sector.