8 www.belpernews.co.uk Wednesday, November 18, 2015BELPER NEWS

Five years of success marked by D2N2 Local Enterprise PartnershipFive years after it was set-up the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is looking back on a half-decade of help-ing grow companies, jobs, skills and the infrastructure to boost the economy.

D2N2 is the private sector-led partnership of business, local authorities, skills and training providers, commu-nity organisations and oth-ers, which works to grow the economy and jobs numbers in its area of Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottingham-shire.

To do this, it receives Gov-ernment and European fund-ing, which is used to lever in private sector investment.

Established five years ago (by Government agreement, in October 2010) it can look back on a record of success, which has seen tens of mil-lions of pounds invested in practical measures to grow the economy, and give busi-ness an increasingly stronger voice.

D2N2 has done this by sticking to the five priorities pledged in its Strategic Eco-nomic Plan for the area:

Business support and access to finance

Since it was established in December 2014 the D2N2 Growth Hub has helped more than 1,000 businesses with free advice, guidance and help access-ing finance. B u s i n e s s s u p p o r t programmes such as Un-locking In-vestment

for Growth and the Growing Places Fund (the panel oppo-site details companies who’ve benefited), have also provided ‘bridging’ finance, to enable companies to take forward their plans.

Innovation Innovative ideas create

growth. A typical example is last April’s launch of ‘The

Grand Tour’ by major players in the Visitor

Economy (tourism), a key sector for the D2N2 area, including Chatsworth House, Bakewell, and The

Harley Gallery, Wel-beck.

A modern rework-ing of the 18th Centu-

ry aristocratic tradition of touring Europe’s cul-

tural destinations, D 2 N 2 b a c k e d

the joint Grand Tour project –

which creat-ed a unique

package for tourists

to view Old Masters alongside new artistic works – in receiv-ing £350,000 in central arts funding.

D 2 N 2 a l s o i n v e s t e d £35,000 of its own funding in Season One (July-September 2015) and Season Two (coming March–June 2016). For more information see website www.thegrandtour.uk.com/

Employment and Skills As part of its over-arch-

ing target to create 55,000 (predominantly private sec-tor) jobs by 2023, D2N2 and key stakeholders are work-ing with area employers to understand what skills they need in their workforces and with training providers to en-sure programmes provide the right ones.

D2N2 is building an infra-structure to improve skills. In 2015 it agreed funding from its Local Growth Fund for two higher level skills centres; £2.6m towards the £6.5m Vi-sion University Centre at West Notts College, Mansfield, and £3.4m for a Chesterfield cen-tre, backed by the University of Derby and Chesterfield Col-lege. Both are due to open Sep-tember 2016.

I n f r a s t r u c t u r e f o r economic growth

Having the right founda-tions for economic growth

–transport networks, facil-ities, improved broadband

access – is seen by D2N2 as vi-tal. This year it has agreed to provide a third (£2.5m) of the cost of the £7.5m Seymour Link Road, to link Markham Vale Enterprise Zone (which

both D2N2 and the Sheffield City Region LEPs invest in) to junction 29a of the M1. This will increase the site’s attrac-tion for companies looking to relocate and enable the ‘un-locking’ of development land.

Housing and Regeneration Homes’ value and con-

struction sector activity are used to assess the UK econo-my’s health; but available and affordable housing also help create social stability and re-generation, making areas more attractive for business-es to locate to.

Investing in major trans-port schemes – including main junction improvements such as the A57/A60/B6024 in Worksop, where D2N2 is investing £1.8m (in a £2.4m scheme co-funded by Shef-field City Region LEP and Nott i n g h a m s h i re C ou n -ty Council); and the £4.8m the LEP is due to approve in

2015/16 for the A61 Whitting-ton Moor, Chesterfield, works – also helps ‘unlock’ land for housing and commercial de-velopment, bringing regener-ation through increased jobs.

Peter Richardson, Chair-man of the D2N2 Local Enter-prise Partnership, said: “Most people would be surprised at how many major economic projects and initiatives D2N2

has become involved in.”“With a Devolution Deal for

Derby, Derbyshire, Notting-ham and Nottinghamshire not too far away – an agreement we, and our business and local authority partners have been pursuing for some time – the LEP hopes to do even more to boost the local economy in fu-ture, for the benefit of all com-munities.”

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Artist’s impression of planned £6.5m West Notts College centre, Mansfield.

Former St Helena’s School, site of future Chesterfield higher level skills centre

Grand Tour tourism initiative launched by D2N2 in April this year

Peter Richardson, Chairman of D2N2 LEP.

9Wednesday, November 18, 2015 www.belpernews.co.uk BELPER NEWS

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Car technology, craft beer and chilled foods may seem to have little in common – but one con-nection is the D2N2 Local En-terprise Partnership (LEP).

Though firmly grounded in its Derby, Derbyshire, Notting-ham and Nottinghamshire catchment, D2N2’s help for and investment in companies looking to expand means its influence can be far reaching.

Former business support programmes such as Unlock-ing Investment for Growth (UI4G), providing ‘bridg-ing’ grants of up to £500,000 (supported by the Regional Growth Fund and the Euro-pean Regional Development Fund), and Growing Places Fund (GPF), giving loans of £500,000 to £2.5m to kick-start larger stalled develop-ments, have provided link funding for practical meas-ures to grow the economy and jobs.

Typical examples, from D2N2’s five years, include:

QTS LtdThe leading manufac-

turer of wire mesh shelving

and racking for warehouse and logistics use was able to ‘re-shore’ its manufactur-ing base, from China back to the UK, and open a new facil-ity in Pinxton, with the aid of a £287,000 UI4G grant from D2N2.

Shaun Ingram, Managing Director of QTS, said: “With-out the funding from D2N2 it would have been very difficult for us to complete the project in the time frame we wanted.”

Standard Motor Prod-ucts Europe (SMP Europe)

Based in Annesley, Not-

QTS Ltd managing director Shaun Ingram and James Bosworth, business growth manager, Manufacturing Advisory Service

Refrigerated Delivery Services Ltd received vital D2N2 funding help and right D2N2 Chief Executive David Ralph.

Wide range of companies benefit from D2N2 help

tinghamshire, the company was similarly able to move manufacturing back from the Far East to the UK, expanding its workforce in the area. The manufacturer and distributor of engine management prod-ucts received £81,000 from the UI4G programme, towards its total expansion plan of more than £320,000 in premises, plant and equipment. Eleven new jobs have been created already.

Thornbridge Brewery The award-winning Peak

District craft brewer has

built on a 2014 premises and production expansion, cost-ing more than £400,000 – £78,000 of that from D2N2 – to branch into new markets. This year (2015) it opened its first Thornbridge branded bar abroad, in southern Hol-land, working with an investor there. It is now looking for a similar deal in Helsinki, Fin-land’s capital.

Refrigerated Delivery Services (RDS) Ltd

With D2N2’s help the fro-zen and chilled foods storage and delivery firm, which em-ploys more than 90 staff, was

able to buy extra yard and warehouse space at Shire-oaks, Worksop; overcoming a problem which had seen them having to turn away potential clients.

Simon Herberts, Opera-tions Manager at RDS Ltd, said: “We identified and bought the perfect site for ex-pansion, and the grant we re-ceived from D2N2 enabled us to build a whole new chiller room and freezer.”

David Ralph, chief execu-tive of the D2N2 Local Enter-prise Partnership, said the LEP and its partners helped

companies find what worked best for them, rather than taking a ‘one size fits all’ ap-proach.

“Whether you’re a compa-ny turning over £100m a year or someone whose business is still only an idea in their head, whether you’re looking for fi-nance to expand or for addi-tional training help, D2N2 or its partners should be able to help,” he added.

For more information about the work of the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partner-ship see its website at www.d2n2lep.org.

PARTNERS

The D2N2 Growth Hub is thereto help ambitious businesses

like yours to grow.

IT CAN HELP WITH• Free support and guidance• Assistance in getting yourbusiness started

• Growing your business• Accessing finance• Employment and skills• Expansion into new andinternational markets

HAVE A LOOK AT OUR WEBSITE AT

WWW.D2N2GROWTHHUB.CO.UKTO FIND THE FUNDING AND SUPPORT YOU NEED FROM PUBLICAND PRIVATE SECTOR PROVIDERS WORKING IN YOUR AREA.

Or ring one of our advisors on0333 006 9178, oremail: info@d2n2growthhub.co.ukor follow us on Twitter at @D2N2GrowthHub