“Good morning everybody, and welcome. It’s great to see so many people here today as we celebrate the success to date of the Ceramic Valley Enterprise Zone, on the latest site to come forward -Tunstall Arrow - of which more later.
I’m Cllr Abi Brown, Deputy Leader of Stoke-on-Trent City Council and extremely proud Chair of the Ceramic Valley Enterprise Zone Board.
Just over 3 years gao, the government launched their second round call for Enterprise Zones. You may recall that Stoke-on-Trent has been unsuccessful in the first round in 2010, however after careful consideration of our strategy, based on feedback from 2010, Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership submitted the idea for Ceramic Valley; a ribbon of 6 sites along the A500, 5 in Stoke-on-Trent and 1 in Newcastle-under-Lyme, with a mixture of ownerships and developers.
As I know many of you in this room will agree, success does not come without hard work, and as the Stoke-on-Trent LEP Executive Board member, a fair bit of lobbying was done too. In November 2015, the government announced that the Ceramic Valley Enterprise Zone would become a reality, a very proud moment.
Within weeks, enquiries had started to come in - and have never stopped. By the official launch date of 1 April 2016, we had over 40 live enquiries through Make It Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, a figure we have never dropped below.
So what is our secret? In early 2016, I joined a group of London-based DCLG civil servants on a tour of the Enterprise Zone, and one of them commented to me, “I read your proposal and it really resonated with me. When I then broke my mug, I rushed out to find one with a Stoke-on-Trent backstamp.”
Because we are the city that makes art from dirt, and the story of the success of the Ceramic Valley Enterprise Zone mirrors that of the city, a resurgent World Capital of Ceramics.
We are a post-industrial north Midlands city, finding its feet again, recognising it’s strengths and using them to create its future.
We are a city with creativity in its DNA, we beat the odds to be shortlisted for UK City of Culture in 2022 - we were pipped at the post, but are building on the national and international recognition we achieved through the competition.
We are no longer a hidden city, but now playing with bigger cities to secure national investment , and regarded as one to watch.
A city that’s making heritage cool, and creativity sexy, putting edu-clay-tion back on the agenda and making out it’s Grade A strategic location.
We are a changing city, determined to change the UK’s perception of us.
New hotels are appearing, including the 4* Hilton Garden Inn in the city centre - capitalising on the growing visitor numbers we are seeing. 4.8m in 2016, an increase of 100,000 on the previous year.
We are bringing in new businesses, who are recognising the growing local economy; the city has experienced a huge drop in unemployment, and is the 10th fastest growing economy outside of London and the South East. There is also an increase in disposable income locally, helped by the very reasonable cost of living here. The Hive, Intu Potteries leisure development experienced a massive increase in footfall in their first year alone.
It’s hardly surprising therefore that we are keen to promote that we are a great place to live, work and do business.
We have one of the fastest growing housing markets in the UK, with an expanding offer, including city centre PRS, £53m City Council housing company investing over the next 10years, and the development of key sites such as the old Victoria Ground, which has been empty for decades until recently. As recognition of this changing backdrop, we have been awarded £10m by the government to deliver land remediation on 9 sites around Burslem, bringing brownfield sites back into use.
449,770sqft of employment floor space was completed in 2016/17, and the land developed for employment use is equalivent to 27 football pitches, with 2015/16 and 2016/17 the highest recorded figures since 2006.
Develolpments are springing up right across the city, even in the extremes of the city, in wards like my own of Meir Park, with key sites suddenly coming to life.
This is complimented by the brilliant quality of life we have here; 86% of schools are rated good or outstanding, 95% of young people, aged 16-17, are in employment, education or training, and we have internationally recognised museums and growing cultural programme,
And now we are officially HS2 connected, Stoke-on-Trent is properly looking to cement itself at the heart of UK plc.
With 3.1m passengers coming through Stoke Station in 2016/17 - that’s twelve times the population of the city - this is increasingly the place to be.
In March this year, I launched the Stoke Station Masterplan at MIPIM Cannes - a vision and 25 year strategy for the station and buildings; proposing approximately 110,000sqm employment and residential floor space, providing 1,600 jobs, gross, and £69m GVA, gross.
With links into Stoke town revived and a resurgent Spode site, Staffordshire University now based in the town and Stoke-on-Trent City Council firmly cemented and investing here too, the city is coming back to life.
Hardly surprising I tweet a lot about #Stokeisontheup !
And so to Ceramic Valley Enterprise Zone, a key part of this.
Officially launched on 1 April 2016, Ceramic Valley Enterprise Zone is formed from 6 sites along the A599.it covers 140ha of brownfield land, a mixture of owners and developers, but with the shared vision of unlocking sites and accelerating investment, potentially delivering up to 6,700 jobs.
The first site to see real investment after Enterprise Zone designation was Etruria Valley, with its close access to the A500 and A53 seeing DPD move in, quickly followed by Greene King’s ‘Brindley Farm’. We have since seen the development of Bet365’s leisure and training facility, cementing the business’s commitment to the city. West Midlands Ambulance Service have also relocated here, freeing up a strategic site by the University Hospital of North Midlands.
An additional benefit of locating in Etruria Valley is that we are currently in the process of procuring a provider/partner to deliver a full fibre gigabit network in and around the Etruria Valley site. This not only fulfils our remit to ensure that the sites have ultra fast broadband, but will actually deliver hyper fast broadband, a significant USP.
The strategic location of Ceramic Valley Enterprise Zone has led to it being identified as part of the long listing by Heathrow Hub. Two of the sites are in the long list of 60, due to their great location and road and rail connectivity.
Chatterley Valley West, in Newcastle-under-Lyme, has a rail spur and the Ravensdale section of the Highgate/Ravensdale site, has planning permission for a rail hub.
The Chatterley Valley East site neighbours the Blue Planet JCB distribution centre and Genesis Business Park, and Stoke-on-Trent City Council are currently considering a development of industrial units on this site, comprising 31,000sqft.
Heathrow recently finished their visits to the longlisted sites, with the next stage due to be announced in the Autumn.
Highgate/Ravensdale has seen much development at the stop end of the site, with Tile Mountain occupying their new premises in 2017, and now onto phase 2 of a 90,000sqft facility to support this locally founded, nationally trading company.
Meanwhile, opposite is the Tunstall Trade Park, with the first terrace complete with tenants including Toolstation, Purpless and Glass Installation, and a second terrace also underway.
On the other side of the town, there is of course Tunstall Arrow, where we are today.
I won’t steal the thunder of our gracious hosts, but will say that this development, and that of Highgate/Ravensdale have transformed Tunstall - not just economically, but with renewed confidence and presence.
Ultimately, that is what Enterprise Zones were meant to do, stimulate economic growth. I am incredibly proud that Ceramic Valley Enterprise Zone has not just done that across the individual sites, but the wider city.
In 2 and a half years, we have;
* delivered nearly 2000 jobs, secured or in the pipeline
* developed over 500,000sqft of commercial development space
* seen the first speculative development happening in the city for years
* brought back into use brownfield sites derelict for generations.
I am proud to say that Ceramic Valley Enterprise Zone is one of the most successful Enterprise Zones in the UK.
As I said at the start, success comes from hard work, and a big thank you to the site owners and developers, colleagues at Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council and Staffordshire County Council, the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire LEP, and the Make It Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire investment team, who have helped to provide the city’s motto - united strength is stronger. They have also helped to make this one of the most exciting cities in the UK.”