More than £620m of potential investment opportunities across Stoke-on-Trent have been launched to investors by the city council.
The authority said it showcased a bold and exciting range of opportunities for investment, redevelopment and building on the case for levelling up in the city.
Stoke-on-Trent received the largest Levelling Up Fund investment for any city in the country, securing £56m for regeneration, infrastructure and heritage projects.
In the government’s Levelling Up White Paper, it was announced that the authority will also receive further investment and support in education, culture and bus improvements.
Now council leaders are using its Levelling Up Prospectus to tell investors and developers of the number of opportunities available in the city.
The prospectus, the city’s biggest investment prospectus to date, was revealed at an event in London last week, which showed the range of leisure, office, residential and industrial investment opportunities currently available in the city, with over 30 investors attending.
Announced in the government’s Levelling Up White Paper, Stoke-on-Trent was placed at the heart of the government’s levelling up agenda after being named as an ‘Education Investment Area’.
The whitepaper confirmed that the city would receive part of a £1.2bn package to help fund ‘ambitious plans for bus improvements in areas where this can make the most impact.’
It also said: ‘We will explore how more flagship national cultural institutions can support the strength of our historic cultural heritage in great cities such as Stoke and Manchester.’
In October, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced to MPs “not one, not two but three successful projects for the great city of Stoke-on-Trent” during his Autumn Budget and Spending Review speech.
Mr Sunak visited Stoke-on-Trent last month and praised the city’s optimism and said that “change is already being delivered.”
The prospectus highlights Stoke-on-Trent’s rapid and sustained economic growth since 2015, highlighting multiple key investment and development opportunities currently available in the city, including:
- The Etruscan Square development.
- The Goods Yard development.
- £47m Etruria Valley Link Road.
- The city-wide full fibre network.
Emerging industries are also featured in the prospectus, along with investor and developer opportunities at Grade II listed buildings, including Hanley Town Hall.
In launching the prospectus to an audience of investors, developers, business leaders and stakeholders, Leader of Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Councillor Abi Brown said the schemes would ‘level up’ the city and unleash the area’s full economic potential.
The city has recently been tipped as one of the UK’s fastest growing city economies for GVA growth and employment by the end of 2022, according to the UK Powerhouse report.
Councillor Brown said:
“These are incredibly exciting times for Stoke-on-Trent. Very few UK cities have demonstrated the rapid sustained economic growth as we have since 2015.
“This has delivered the very real confidence that can be seen right now in our small but mighty city, from developers to investors and most importantly from central government.
“We are an ambitious city and we are looking for partners who share our vision and are committed to driving forward regeneration that will have lasting social and economic impact.
“The prospectus provides a snapshot to potential investors of a range of exciting investment and development opportunities across the city.
“It makes it abundantly clear why Stoke-on-Trent, with its positive rates of returns, is such a great place for investors to come and get involved in right now and that we are very much open for business.”
Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Infrastructure and Heritage, Councillor Daniel Jellyman said:
“There’s been a lot of talk over the years about our city’s fantastic strategic location in the heart of the country near the national road network and close to major airports, and the potential that brings with it.
“We’re now at the point where we are seeing this long talked about potential being truly realised, home to one of the most successful Enterprise Zones in the country, regenerating large, contaminated brownfield sites across the city and now backed by a £56m regeneration commitment from government, to name just a few of the many schemes that are now transforming our city.
“We are using the prospectus to encourage inward investment into Stoke-on-Trent.
“We’re having conversations with investors from not just the UK but across the globe, so the prospectus outlines all our key opportunities in one document and gives details on the various sites. It illustrates perfectly why businesses should make Stoke-on-Trent their home.”
You can watch the full PSE365 public sector leadership panel, and more, on demand here.
