Derby will receive another regeneration and jobs boost in February when the construction of a multi-million-pound office development begins. This is despite continued efforts by Labour to savagely cut the Council’s regeneration delivery team budget by around 40%.

Developer Lowbridge has said that it will begin building the first phase of the £20 million Friar Gate Square scheme, creating about 250 jobs, on February 13. The site is on the corner of Agard Street and Ford Street and will be the first office development to be built in Derby for around 20 years.

Derby City’s Conservative-Led Council has helped kick-start the project with a financial contribution from its £10 million Regeneration Fund. The fund was set up to stimulate office developments in the city centre and to help with construction costs. Without this fund, Derby would not be in a position to forge ahead with its ambitious regeneration and jobs creation plans at a time when they are most needed.

Friar Gate Square will be a two-phase development. Work on the second phase will begin once all the offices in the first phase have been established and it is believed the development will create 700 jobs.

Derby Conservative and Council leader, Philip Hickson said: “This project will deliver major regeneration benefits and provide an enormous boost for the city. The council has an ongoing commitment to stimulating the economy in Derby and the purpose of the regeneration fund is to help kick-start schemes which otherwise might not start because of the economic climate.

If we encourage developers to start work on new schemes, they will become a catalyst for others to follow and the city will benefit from the major inward investment that is generated. At present, Derby has about a million square feet of city centre office projects waiting to be built.”

Cllr Hickson continued, ” But because of a lack of confidence in the market, developers are struggling to attract investment for projects where a tenant is not already in place.”

In contrast the Derby Labour group continue to propose a devastating 40% cut to the Council’s budget that delivers and manage regeneration and investment across the City.

The ongoing work is the cornerstone to the delivery of regeneration projects planned or being delivered across Derby. Under Labour, developers would be forced to look elsewhere and jobs lost to other Cities.

Under Conservative leadership, Derby remains ‘Open for Business’ and is being recognised nationally as a place to do business and invest.”

Derby Conservatives are working hard for Derby and the following projects are already underway or planned:

• Regeneration Investment Fund – to create a quality commercial office market in Derby city centre.
• Castleward Urban Village – to create a largely self-contained ‘urban village’ of 800 homes on land between the city centre and the railway station.
• Osmaston Vision – to work with the local community and Rolls Royce to transform this area that has suffered from industrial blight and neglect in the past.
• To work with our two independent Business Improvement Districts to promote the interests of businesses in the city centre.
• City Centre Regeneration Framework – this provides a framework for the physical development of the city centre.
• A host of other regeneration projects of strategic significance including projects to support local investment by our major manufacturers and projects to address significant areas of neglect in the city centre.

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Councillor Philip Hickson, Leader of Derby City Council, has met with Prime Minister David Cameron at a 10 Downing Street reception to mark the Royal Assent of the Government’s Localism Act on 16 November 2011.

The Government is committed to devolving decision making for a range of local issues from Whitehall to councillors and people within local communities. Now with the proposals having passed into law, councillors up and down England and Wales will see this commitment become a reality.

Commenting, Councillor Hickson said, “It was good to visit Downing Street and to meet with the Prime Minister to discuss the positive changes the Government is making in devolving power to local authorities through the Localism Act.

By giving councillors more freedom over decisions affecting the local area, much stronger powers on licensing and by cutting needless bureaucracy, this Government is showing its commitment to hand control back to local people and communities.”

Prime Minister, David Cameron added, “I always the welcome the opportunity to meet with group leaders from across the country to discuss the issues on the ground, and how the Government can work to do all we can to make local government work for local people.”

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Derby Conservatives have welcomed the news that Toyota is creating 1,500 new jobs at its Burnaston plant that already employs a large number of local Derby workers.

The car manufacturer revealed that the jobs will be created over the next two years with a £100m investment that will make the factory the sole European manufacturing centre for a new generation of hatchbacks including hybrid, petrol and diesel models.

Prime Minister David Cameron visited Derbyshire today and spoke to the Derby Evening Telegraph saying;

This part of the country has a proud industrial record, from Arkwright’s mills and steam engines in the 18th century to Rolls-Royce and hi-tech manufacturing in the 21st.

I’m delighted to visit Derbyshire today to see that story continue with two big new announcements: at Nestlé’s Hatton plant, a £110million investment that will mean around 300 new jobs; and at Toyota, a significant new investment at the Burnaston plant which, again, will mean the creation of hundreds more good jobs.

This is a massive vote of confidence in the skills we’ve got here in Derbyshire, and it follows an upward trend – since the election last year, employment in the East Midlands has risen by around 50,000.

So there is some cause for celebration. But clearly, unemployment in Derbyshire and around the country is still too high. Being out of work is difficult enough at the best of times; with Christmas around the corner, and people worried about providing for their families, it is especially hard. That is why I have made very clear that this government’s driving priority is to help create jobs and get Britain working. Achieving that means doing three things.

First, doing everything we can to help businesses grow and take people on. No company is going to have the confidence to expand unless they know our economy is sound.

So however tough it may be, we are sticking to our plan to reduce Britain’s debts. Those who say we should ditch this plan should take a look at what’s happening in Europe.

Businesses in Greece and Italy are now paying painfully high interest rates. They know from bitter experience how devastating out-of-control debts are to growth and jobs – so here we will stick to the course and take the UK safely through the storm.

Dealing with our debts is just the foundation of what we’re doing for UK businesses. We’re also slashing the time it takes to start up a business; cutting corporation tax to 23 per cent; working with firms to cut back on red tape; rewriting employment law so it’s easier for firms to take on workers; and making sure the banks are lending properly to the real economy again – in fact in the first three quarters of this year they lent £157 billion to business, and lending to small and medium businesses is 10 per cent up on last year.

The overall strategy is to make Britain one of the best places to do business on the planet and announcements like those at Nestlé and Toyota today show just how important that strategy is.

Second, we’re swinging the weight of government funding behind our businesses.

Several Derbyshire firms – like JC Bamford and Disley Tissue – have won funding through the Regional Growth Fund; funding that they’re going to plough into new research, new construction and new jobs here. And as well as this direct investment, government’s got to get better at considering how best to spend the public purse.

I want to direct that money in a way that strengthens the UK economy; a commitment reinforced by what happened with Bombardier.

I am extremely frustrated that the decision led to job losses here in Derby and I’m determined that the right lessons are learnt, so that good businesses here in the UK always get a fair chance of competing for contracts.

That’s why this week we announced a new approach to procurement.

For the first time, government will publish detailed plans of what it wants to buy, so that our businesses can tool up, plan for the future and compete on a level playing field.

This is about balancing the value we need to get for the taxpayer with the long-term value we can get for UK businesses, jobs and skills. In the private sector, good companies nurture their suppliers and thus help them to win business in the future. I want government to do the same.

The third thing we’ve got to do to get Britain working is to help workers who have jobs to stay in those jobs. Over the past decade or so, many people in our country have fallen into the sick-note trap: they fall ill; get signed off work by their GP; their fitness isn’t checked again; and soon they’re on the conveyer belt to a life on benefits.

Of course if people genuinely can’t work, we must support them. But there are clearly many who can work but get stuck in the sick-note trap. This week Dame Carol Black and David Frost published a report recommending ways we can break this trap and get people working.

One of their ideas is that instead of relying on GPs to keep signing people off, employers should be able to turn to a new specialist independent service to assess their workers more quickly and efficiently. If they’re unable to work, they’ll be helped – but if they are fit, they’ll be identified and supported back into the workplace. To me these are sound ideas, which is why I have asked ministers across Whitehall to consider the merits of these proposals.

So right across the board, whether we’re dealing with our debts, changing the way we spend public money, or sorting out the sick-note trap, there is a clear thread running through everything this government is doing: the drive to create jobs and get Britain working. The ultimate aim is to create an economy that works for everyone – where those who work hard and do the right thing are rewarded for their efforts.

Building this new economy will take time, but I believe we can be optimistic about the future. The announcements at Nestle and Toyota follow on the heels of many other good news stories for this part of the country, from Network Rail announcing investment in a new depot in Derby, to Rolls-Royce winning a number of important new contracts.

Derbyshire still boasts world-class engineering, skills and production facilities – and that is a reputation this government is determined to invest in and build on in the years ahead.”

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