David Cameron has endorsed Bristol's planned Enterprise Zone – giving it a major boost to the city’s drive to position itself as the UK’s leading centre for the creative industries.
The Enterprise Zone, announced in the Budget earlier this year and based on 173 acres of mostly disused land around Temple Meads station, aims to become an economic regenerator creating 17,000 jobs over the next 25 years.
Mr Cameron's visit gives the project national profile as the government attempts to refocus its efforts on economic recovery following recent figures showing the recovery struggling to gain ground.
The Prime Minister used the Enterprise Zone as a way of illustrating the government’s resolve to allow individual cities to drive their own economic regeneration policies by focusing on their key sectors.
Ahead of arriving in Bristol yesterday he said: “I am determined that we should drive growth in every town, city and community in the country.
“For too long our economy has been dependent on just one corner of the country and too few industries. But it won’t be ministers in Whitehall who can drive this growth; it will be those with the great business idea who are ready to start up, the entrepreneurs who want to grow their company, the businesses looking to expand into new markets. That is why we are getting behind them and rolling out enterprise zones to spark business growth around the country.”
In Bristol that means helping the creative and digital sectors to flourish. The Enterprise Zone will give established and fledgling creative businesses access to superfast broadband – widely seen as the key enabler of growth – along with business support services and, potentially, financial incentives.
The 173-acre site, to be called Temple Quarter, takes in Temple Meads station itself – where a number of heritage buildings will be redeveloped – the existing Temple Quay office park, the former railway site alongside Temple Meads which was earmarked for the ill-fated Arena project, and a strip of land along Bath Road that includes Paintworks, the arts and media centre which was emerged from former industrial buildings.
Bristol's Enterprise Zone is one of the country's first and is the result of strong lobbying in Whitehall by the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership, the private-sector led regeneration body for the city region.
