Video: Yorkshire cities in scramble to set up tax-break Enterprise Zones

A SCRAMBLE is under way to set up Yorkshire’s two tax-break Enterprise Zones which the Government is backing to create thousands of jobs and kickstart the economy.

David Cameron and Nick Clegg wasted no time yesterday in naming the sites of the first four zones – which offer firms business rate discounts, superfast broadband and fast-track planning – in Nottingham, Liverpool, Manchester and London after they were announced in Wednesday’s Budget.

But leaders in Sheffield and Leeds will not decide the location of theirs until they discover more detail about exactly what powers the zones will bring. Last night the Government released a prospectus of the plans which could pave the way for sites to be chosen over the next couple of months.

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Attention will turn to areas already identified as key to development.

The Aire Valley – a massive regeneration site to the south east of Leeds with the potential to create up to 27,000 jobs – is likely to be a favourite.

Other possible sites in the Leeds City Region include York Central, a brownfield site behind the city’s railway station, the Bradford-Shipley Canal Corridor and the Leeds-Bradford Corridor.

In South Yorkshire the Dearne Valley, the location of an Enterprise Zone in the 1990s after being hit by pit closures, Robin Hood Airport Business Park, Markham Vale Business Park and the A61 corridor are among areas considered key to growth and likely to be in the running.

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James Newman, chairman of the Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) which will decide on the location of its zone, said: “There are a number of potential sites we mentioned in our original document (bidding to become a LEP) which are capable of being expanded but also potentially other sites which when we’ve looked at the individual rules of the scheme it might be possible to develop.

“Frankly I have to say I’m surprised that LEPs have been able to make decisions so quickly as to where their Enterprise Zones should be without knowing some of the detail as to what the rules of the game are.”

The Government has named 11 areas where Enterprise Zones will be set up and invited LEPs to bid for another 10. Ministers are understood to be keen for one of those to be in the Humber region if businesses and councils can resolve their wrangling and get an LEP set up in the next few weeks.

The Boots campus in Nottingham, where the Prime Minister and his deputy visited yesterday, Liverpool Waters, Manchester Airport and London’s Royal Docks were named as the first four sites.

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From next April businesses setting up in the zones will be able to get discounts on business rates up to a maximum £275,000 over five years, access to superfast broadband and fast-track planning which could save them having to seek permission from the council at all.

Councils in the area would also share the money raised by growing business rates for at least 25 years, giving them resources to reinvest in boosting the economy locally to answer criticism that the Government has slashed funding in regional development.

Neil McLean, chairman of the Leeds City Region LEP, said agreeing a site would take “a little time” although he was keen to make a quick decision.

“We’ll be looking at key areas with growth potential,” he said. “Until we know a little bit more about the nature of support it’s quite difficult.”

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Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said: “Growth is this Government’s number one priority and a new generation of Enterprise Zones are central to our strategy. Local enterprise partnerships can use these zones as a springboard for private sector growth and wider regeneration.”

Meanwhile Leeds is hoping to convince the Government to set up a northern arm of its planned Green Investment Bank in the city region, with officials set to meet civil servants soon. The bank will provide funding for low-carbon transport and energy schemes.

Tom Riordan, chief officer of the partnership, said: “With the renewables investment in Hull, the Carbon Capture and Storage stuff that’s happening in various places and then in the nuclear industry in the north west, there’s going to be a lot of opportunities in the North to attract investment from the bank.

“To be just based down in London all the time is not ideal so I think it would make sense to have a base up here that can be plugged into the industrial development happening in low carbon which is very significant.”