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The Prime Minister has used his visit to Nottingham to announce the location of the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire enterprise zone and reveal plans to provide funding to extend the city’s tram network. David Cameron, who was visiting the city alongside Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, said the government would provide funding to enable two more tram lines to be added to the network.

In addition to the announcement relating to the tram line, it was also revealed that the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire enterprise zone would be located on the proposed redevelopment of the Boots site in Lenton, Nottingham.

Colin Walton, chairman of the Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire (D2N2) LEP, said that the location would provide a “unique opportunity” for the LEP.

He said: “The new enterprise zone could lead to the development of an edge of city multi-use employment site which could attract internationally significant businesses across a variety of sectors including science and technology, manufacturing, office and medical based sectors. A newly developed site could create between 5,000 and 10,000 new jobs locally and result in much needed economic growth in our area.”

Part of the site currently houses Boots' head office, manufacturing and main logistics functions. Approximately 7,000 company employees work on site.

Boots said it had made up to 100-acres (40 hectares) of vacant land and several under used buildings available for redevelopment.

Alex Gourlay, chief executive of the health and beauty division at Alliance Boots, said: "We're delighted with today's announcement. The site is ideally situated for redevelopment creating up to 200,000 square metres of commercial space for a wide variety of sectors. This site could drive growth boosting both the local and national economies. We have been developing proposals for the regeneration of this site for a number of years. This gives us an opportunity to forge ahead with our plans."

It was revealed in thes week's Budget announcement that 21 enterprise zones would be created throughout England. So far, ten have been announced, with five locations having been revealed.

The investment in two additional tram lines to the city’s network was announced after cost savings were identified to make the project more affordable, said Nottingham City Council.

Cost savings were identified following negotiations between Nottingham City Council and Tramlink Nottingham and Arrow Connect, who are bidding for the extensions to Chilwell and Clifton (NET Phase Two).

Construction should begin towards the end of this year and the extended network is hoped to be fully operational by 2014.