20Boost%20Magazine%20-%20Issue%201%20September%202010

B OST

issue one September 2010

The magazine for the european regional development fund in England’s Northwest

ERDFINVESTMENTSSchemes across theregion are benefittingfrom ERDF. Page 4

FINANCE FORBUSINESSThe £185m North WestFund takes another stepforward. Page 8

PROPERTYFUNDConsortium apointed todeliver Northwest UrbanInvestment Fund. Page 9

ACADEMIA &BUSINESSERDF investments linkacademia and business todrive innovation. Page 10

New Life intoBlackpool

As the UK’s most popular holiday resort, attracting around 10 million visitors

every single year, Blackpool is now taking its tourist attractions to the next level.

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Key projects approved include:

• Northwest Venture Capital and Loan Fund (£92m ERDF)

• Northwest Urban Investment Fund (£50m ERDF)

• Future Manufacturing Advisory Service (£8.5m ERDF)

• Aerospace Supply Chain Excellence Programme (£3.4m ERDF)

• High Growth Business Start Up (£2.3m ERDF)

• Northwest International Capabilities Transfer Programme (£1.6m ERDF)

• Grant for Research and Development (£1.1m ERDF)

Europe is investing €755m toexpand the Northwest economy

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Contents

Welcome to Boost

ERDF Investments in Blackpool

ERDF Investment Case Studies

The North West Fund

Northwest Urban Investment Fund

Academia and Business

News

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4

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Welcome to this, the first edition of our new look quarterly newsletter for the European Regional Development

Fund (ERDF) Programme here in the Northwest of England. We hope that this new magazine style publication

will help to put some more 'meat on the bones' in terms of what we are achieving in the Northwest with funding

from the European Commission.

With nearly £400 million already committed to projects across the region, the ERDF Programme is making a very

real difference to people and businesses in the Northwest. There are now over 120 live projects, ranging from

large scale infrastructure projects, such as St Paul's Square in Liverpool, to the provision of finance for small

businesses through projects such as Grant for Research and Development (GRAND). These are all valuable

projects for the region, and they wouldn't have happened without financial support from Europe.

Whilst the UK public sector faces a period of change, this ERDF programme will continue to provide a vital

source of funding to boost economic development.

I hope you enjoying reading this publication as you learn more about how ERDF is adding value to our region.

David MalpassDirector of European Programme, Northwest Regional Development Agency


Excitingdevelopmentsbreathe new life into BlackpoolHelen France, Corporate Director for Places, Blackpool Council, tells us how ERDFfunding is revitalising Blackpool Tower, the Winter Gardens and the Golden Mile.

As the UK’s most popular holiday resort,attracting around 10 million visitorsevery single year, Blackpool is nowtaking its tourist attractions to the nextlevel.

The acquisition of Blackpool’s iconictourism and leisure assets: BlackpoolTower; the Winter Gardens; and parts ofthe Golden Mile, through a £52 millionjoint investment package, is enablingthe town to retain its status whileimproving tourist attractions.

Helen France has been at the forefrontof the project, which will breathe newlife into Blackpool.

“The financial package, which includes£14 million ERDF investment, hasallowed us to purchase these assets,bringing them into public ownershipand refurbishing them to raisestandards and attract more tourists tothe area.

“Merlin will operate the Tower complexand some of the Golden Mile assets,and will bring some of their ownattractions, including a version of theDungeon and a Madame Tussauds.

“This is an exciting time for Blackpool.The Winter Gardens will also undergo aprogramme of refurbishment and weexpect for the project to create around1,000 jobs by 2013, as well as attractingan extra million visitors each year.”

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www.visitblackpool.com

Steven Broomhead, Chief Executive ofthe NWDA, added:

“Both Blackpool Tower and the WinterGardens are internationally recognisedlandmarks and are therefore key assetsfor both the resort and the Northwest.Through bringing these two primeattractions into public ownership, thisinvestment will drive a majorredevelopment and restorationprogramme on a scale that wouldotherwise not have been possible,generating significant economicbenefits.”

ERDF investment has done a great dealfor Blackpool already. The Tower FestivalHeadlands development has enabled

the creation of a flexible outdoor eventsspace for up to 20,000 people and aunique Comedy Carpet feature. As wellas this, funding from the previous ERDFProgramme helped with a series ofpublic realm projects, including theSolaris project, which saw theconversion of a derelict seafront artdeco building into a model of energyefficiency. Investment into BlackpoolSeafront Parade will also introducelandscaping, lighting and landmarkfeatures to the area.

The latest batch of ERDF investmentwill position Blackpool as a leadingtourist attraction, not just in the UK, butinternationally too. It will facilitate: thearrival of contemporary, continental-styletrams that will run the length of the

coast alongside Blackpool’s world-famous heritage trams; completion ofthe seafront remodelling programme;animation of specially-built promenadeheadlands, creating opportunities foroutdoor leisure activities; andcontinued investment into existingtourist attractions, including thePleasure Beach Resort, Blackpool Zooand Sandcastle Waterpark.

Suffice to say, Blackpool is lookingforward to exciting times that will raisethe profile of the area and give newvisitors a huge variety of excitingexperiences to choose from.

Did you know…Blackpool’s world-famousilluminations were launched morethan a century ago with just 12 arclamps, and were billed as ‘artificialsunshine’. Today, the illuminationscomprise more than a million lights,stretch for six miles and attract morethan three million visitors per year.

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Case studies Land and property

Baltic Triangle CreativeIndustries Merseyside £2.2 million

This project will enable Baltic Creative to purchase property assets on a long-termlease and manage the estate within the Baltic Triangle. Once acquired, units can berefitted to meet the needs of the creative and digital sector on a phased basis.It will develop a cluster of creative activity that includes visual arts, gallery space,and live music and recording venues.

Museum of LiverpoolMerseyside £3.4 million

The Museum of Liverpool, due to open in 2011, willfeature extraordinary exhibitions which explain thecomplex story of Liverpool within the context of thewider region and the big national and internationalthemes that shaped the city, as well as other Britishcities.

Funding will enable more than 6,000 objects fromNational Museums Liverpool’s extensive andinternationally-significant collections to go on display,many for the first time ever.

Case studies Tourism

Hall Lane StrategicGatewayMerseyside £1.5 million

The project will improve the road linkages betweenEdge Lane and Liverpool City Centre.

It involves the construction of a new highway on anorth/south axis coupled with the replacement of thegyratory to provide an improved gateway experienceto users entering and exiting Liverpool via the M62motorway.

Case studies Transport

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Case studies Business support

Sharp ProjectManchester £3 million

The former Sharp European Distribution Centre, onThorp Road in east Manchester, will be refurbishedinto a £16.5 million digital content productioncomplex. It will provide a range of sound stages,office and production space, combined with aworld-class infrastructure for digital companies.

ERDF funding, as well as funding from otherorganisations, is expected to create 13,000 sq m ofdigital business space, assist 85 digital businessesand create 550 jobs in the digital sector. The projectwill also support a recruitment programme whichprovides training and job opportunities for localpeople.

Chester InnovationEconomy CentreChester £2.8 million

The Chester Innovation Economy Centre, based withinthe University of Chester's development of the formerCounty Hall, will encourage mutually beneficialrelationships between businesses, academics andexisting business support agencies.

As well as encouraging small and medium enterprisesto develop, the centre will operate 15 businessincubation units to help nurture new businesses, aimedprimarily at graduates in sectors such as biomedicine,food, health, business, professional and digital. Thenew businesses will benefit from being in closeproximity to academic expertise and external agencieswhich can offer support and guidance.

Media Enterprise CentreManchester £4.2 million

The Media Enterprise Centre, at MediaCityUK, will provide a central location for businesses inthe digital and creative sector, as well as a central location for business information andservices to operate within.

The Centre will enable a wide range of enterprise activity to take place on the site, includingthe incubation and commercialisation of graduates through micro businesses and SMEs.

5www.erdfnw.co.uk/projects


The £185 million North West Fundtakes another step forward

The North West Fund is the umbrellaname for the six product funds that willbe available to businesses in the regionin the form of debt and equity finance tohelp them start, develop and grow.Each product fund will be managed byan expert Fund Manager.

North West Business Finance Limited(NWBF), an independent private sectornot-for-profit compnay, has beenestablished to oversee the delivery ofthe Fund, under the EuropeanCommission's Joint EuropeanResources for Micro to MediumEnterprises Initiative (JEREMIE) in theNorthwest.

By 2022, the North West Fund isexpected to have supported 800businesses, created or safeguardedalmost 14,000 jobs and improve theeconomic performance of England’sNorthwest with an estimated GVAincrease of £700 million.

Andy Leach, Chief Executive Officer ofNWBF, said:“I am delighted that, after a robustprocurement and selection process, weare now able to announce theappointment of the fund managers whowill be delivering The North West Fundacross the region. The fund managerswe have appointed are a combination of

established regional players and newentrants to the region, bringingexperience and expertise, especially inour chosen priority sectors.”

Liz Meek, Chair of the ERDFProgramme Monitoring Committee,said:“The appointment of fund managers isgood news for businesses in theregion which will benefit from theirexpertise in key areas and also fromthe access they provide to finance in atesting economic climate.”

The North West Fund will be open forbusiness in autumn 2010.

By 2022 the North

West Fund will have

supported 800

Northwestbusinesses and

created orsafeguarded

14,000 jobs.

During June 2010, the successful fund managers for the new North WestFund were announced.

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The Funds and their respective Fund Managers are:

Venture Capital (£30 million) Enterprise VenturesDevelopment Capital (£45 million) YFM Private Equity Business Loans (£35 million) FW Capital Biomedical (25 million) Spark Impact Digital & Creative (£15 million) AXM Venture CapitalEnergy & Environmental (£20 million) CT Investment Partners


Consortium Appointed forMajor Regeneration FundThe Northwest Urban Investment Fund (NWUIF), a new £100 million fundto help support urban development projects in England’s Northwest hastaken a step closer to completion. The first of two Urban DevelopmentFunds (UDF’s) which will deliver the fund has been approved by theNWUIF Investment Advisory Board this autumn.

This first UDF will be known asEvergreen and covers the ‘rest of theNorthwest’ area (it excludesMerseyside). A separate UDFspecifically for Merseyside will beapproved later in the year.

The Evergreen Fund is a consortiumof the Association of GreaterManchester Authorities (AGMA), CBRichard Ellis and the GreaterManchester Pension Fund. Thiselement of the NWUIF includes£20m of ERDF investment and withmatch funding and further financialleverage, Evergreen will become a£60m fund, which will initially be

split into three pots. One specificallyfor Greater Manchester, one forCheshire, Cumbria and Lancashire,plus a third to be spent according tomarket requirements across theregion.

The NWUIF has been set up by theNWDA with the cooperation andsupport of the European InvestmentBank. The fund is made up ofinvestment from the ERDFprogramme and the NWDA. It ismanaged by the European InvestmentBank and is a Joint European Supportfor Sustainable Investment in CityAreas (JESSICA) initiative.

The fund has the scope to providedebt, equity and guaranteeinvestment to support projects thatwill unlock sustainable developmentprojects in the Northwest’s urbanareas. It will allow investment inprojects on a long term andsustainable basis, as an additionaltool to grants and is an opportunityfor the region to prolong the benefitof the current ERDF Programme.

The fund is expected to beoperational early in 2011.

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HARNESSING THEPOWER OF GRADUATES

Encouraging links between academia and business tofacilitate the transfer of knowledge and innovation isa key objective of the ERDF Programme in theNorthwest. Not only does this help businesses togrow, but it identifies the entrepreneurs of the future.

Three separate schemes have been successfully launched within the Northwest toensure that graduates, who show potential, get the opportunity to gain valuablework experience while supporting the region’s businesses.

Almost £1.5 million of ERDF funding has been invested in Graduate to Merseyside– a project led by the University of Liverpool, in partnership with Liverpool HopeUniversity. It targets graduates from three local universities providing 250 high-quality internships, for approximately six months.

Paul Redmond, Head of Careers & Employability Service at the University ofLiverpool, said: “Graduate to Merseyside is a fantastic project and ERDF funding has made itpossible. The aim is simple: to help local businesses become more successful byaccessing graduate talent. All these internships are paid by the organisation; ourinvolvement is to source the opportunity, match suitable graduates according to theemployer's specifications, arrange the interviews and generally ensure thateverything works smoothly.”

With £500,000 ERDF investment, Higher Education Enterprise Champions isanother project that aims to help graduates to become more enterprising andpotentially become successful entrepreneurs. Its aim is to connect graduates with

an Enterprise Champion who offersencouragement, guidance and practicalsupport to students and graduateswho show entrepreneurial ideas andcommitment.

Ian Robertson, Chief Executive for theNational Council for GraduateEntrepreneurship, who manage theproject, said:“This is an innovative way to providegraduates, who demonstrate the desireto learn more about developing theirentrepreneurial skills, with opportunitiesto get involved with businesses thatcan provide them with the rightguidance and support to succeed.”

Another graduate-focused project thatwouldn’t have happened without ERDFsupport is Unite with Business. Withalmost £4 million of ERDF funding, thisproject provides a unique solution toregional SMEs, providing acomprehensive business supportprogramme through knowledgeexchange with higher educationinstitutions.

Not only does this project increasebusiness innovation, having a directmeasurable impact on productivity andoverall business performance, it alsoprovides graduates with an opportunityto get involved with businesses and getsome real experience.

Bede Mullen, Director of KnowledgeTransfer at UCLan, who lead theproject, said:“Now more than ever, supporting smallbusinesses in the Northwest is vital todriving growth in the region. Quiteoften SMEs do not have the resourcesavailable to progress important projectsthat will improve productivity, efficiency,innovation or increase profitability. Thisnew funding gives them access to themost up-to-date industry knowledgevia talented graduates, and helps themto achieve their business goals.”

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Redsun take off in Bromborough

NEWS

EVENTSEuropean Showcase 20105th November 2010

Commercial Property Developers, RedsunDevelopments Ltd, has just completed amajor industrial project in Wirral and hasalready secured a hi-tech, Wirral-basedcompany as anchor tenant for the scheme.Redsun, which is based in Merseyside andoperates throughout the Northwest,purchased the six-acre site in Tebay Road atthe edge of Wirral International BusinessPark, Bromborough from Thermal Ceramicsin 2009.

Through a combination of presentations, sitevisits, films and interviews, this event willshowcase a selection of the varied and

valuable projects funded from the ERDFProgramme in the Northwest. For furtherinformation and to register your attendance

at this event please visitwww.nwda.co.uk/europeanshowcase.

INTERREG North West Europe Annual Event 6th and 7th December 2010

‘Innovation’ will be the focus of this two-dayEuropean conference, which will be hostedby the €355 million INTERREG North WestEurope Programme.

INTERREG (Inter-regional) programmes aredesigned to reinforce economic and socialcohesion in the European Union throughcross-border, transnational and interregionalcooperation projects.

For further information about this event visitwww.nweurope.eu

Applications for FundingIn order to streamline the process for ERDFfunding applications, as from 1 July 2010,we no longer require an Expression ofInterest form to be completed by applicants.Instead we ask that potential applicantscontact the European Programme Executive

at NWDA to discuss their project idea. If theproject idea is eligible for ERDF funding andthere is sufficient budget available within therelevant Action Area the applicant will thenbe invited to move straight to Conceptstage.

For further information about the applicationprocess visit www.erdfnw.co.uk/funding-guide

Eye-catching ERDF advertising campaign kicks-off in LiverpoolA new ERDF advertising campaignhighlighting the very real difference ERDFfunding is making to people and businessesin the Northwest has kicked off in

Merseyside. The first of a series ofadvertisements can be seen on theWomen’s International Centre for EconomicDevelopment (WICED) development site at

the corner of Norfolk and St James Street inLiverpool City Centre. Future locations foradverts include Chapel Street in Salford andBlackpool seafront.

The resulting development, which received£2.2 million in ERDF funding, includes a60,000 sq ft industrial unit to be occupied byaerospace manufacturer CML Group. CML has long been based in Birkenheadand needed to expand its compositesdivision. The recently completed building,which has achieved a ‘very good’ energyefficiency standard, is to be occupied solelyfor composites manufacture.

Craig Booton, Managing Director of RedsunDevelopments Ltd said:“We’ve worked closely with CML to producea modern, efficient ‘flagship’ building, whichwill provide the foundations from which tomarket themselves and their skills to theglobal aerospace industry.”

Get in touch

European Programme Executive, Northwest Regional Development AgencyRenaissance House, Centre Park, Warrington, WA1 1QNTel: +44 (0) 1925 400 100 Email: [email protected]

To find out more about ERDF in the Northwest visit:

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Key projects approved include:

• IDEAS at Daresbury (£385,000 ERDF)

• InfoLab21 Strategic Innovation Support Programme (£2m ERDF)

• Innovation Vouchers (£2m ERDF)

• Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (£1.5m ERDF)

• Medilink North West (£400,000)

• Northwest Eco-Innovation Programme (£1.8m ERDF)

• Susdram (£1m ERDF)

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EU funding is supporting brightideas in England’s Northwest


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20Boost%20Magazine%20-%20Issue%201%20September%202010