- Eleven businesses have moved into the zone since its April opening, creating 306 jobs. Two have come from outside the UK and five from outside the West of England.
- A dedicated Enterprise Zone Control Committee has been established to streamline and speed up planning decisions.
- Local Development Orders have been approved for two temporary uses. The Creative Common project has created an exhibition and performance space in the seasonal ‘big top’ on the former car park (plot 3) near Temple Meads. On the former diesel depot, the Severn Project’s two-year urban farm scheme, which will produce carbon-free salad grown under poly tunnels, is providing employment, training and support for people recovering from drug and alcohol abuse.
- Construction works including pedestrianisation and street lighting have been completed on plot 3.
- A £5m investment by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) for the acquisition of Brunel’s Old Station (to be owned by the city council) and the Pest Control Depot on Cattle Market Road to enable them to improve access to the former diesel depot site and connect it to the rest of the zone.
- Bristol City Council has bought the British Empire & Commonwealth Museum at Temple Meads for future regeneration.
- Refurbishment works are on-going on Collett House next to the station to turn it into a creative and digital campus called Temple Studios by developers TCN UK. This follows the first phase of their Temple Gate project, which started with Bristol and Exeter House.
- £11.3m Government funding secured to provide superfast broadband to at least 90% of the city putting the zone at the centre of a high-speed digital network, to ensure Bristol’s businesses and communities can benefit from world-class digital infrastructure.
- A bid made to the £50m a year Growth Innovation Fund to help businesses develop the skills they need to drive growth. This is intended to develop the training and development proposition to run alongside the business development in the zone.
- £2.25m of Government funding secured as part of the City Deal for a growth hub which will provide additional support to inward investors. The hub will work closely with UK Trade and Investment, the national body responsible for handling inward investment, and will provide new resources for handling inquiries, marketing and promotion, matching potential investors with the opportunities that exist across the city region.
- Development of the proposal for the Creative Harbour Centre, which will house business incubators for start-up companies as well as collaboration and teaching space, an innovation showcase and the new shared inward investment service. This builds on the successful SETsquared incubator hosted by the University of Bristol, which accelerates hi-tech, high-growth businesses and will bring together teaching, enterprise and research to exploit the fusion between technology, creative and low-carbon innovation and hence stimulate significant growth in the West of England.
- The City Region Deal agreed with Government in September will deliver an additional 40,000 jobs and more than £1bn of investment to support local growth over the next 25 years. It builds on the shared commitment of business and the local authorities in the West of England to deliver the LEP’s ambitions for significant economic growth.
- The rail industry, with support from the Greater Bristol area including the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership, is developing a strategy to transform Temple Meads station into a world-class rail gateway for the city by the end of the decade. Alongside the electrification of the Great Western main line to London Paddington and the introduction of the InterCity Express Programme, this proposal aims to expand the station area and increase train services to cater for growing rail demand in Bristol, when passenger numbers look set to rise by 44% over the next 10 years.
- Complementing this proposal, Network Rail is also working on a number of other infrastructure enhancements to provide additional capacity, improved journey times and operational flexibility on the railway around Bristol. These include a road/rail interchange next to Temple Meads, remodelling a key junction into the station area, installing additional infrastructure on the line to Bristol Parkway, including re-instating it to four tracks, additional car parking and improving the linespeed to the South West.
