News - Midlands
Nottingham has long been seen as party town, a city renowned for its bustling nightlife – one of the most enduring urban myths of recent times had it that women outnumbered men by some three to one, leading to coach-loads of tourists piling into the city to spend their hard-earned.
But there’s far more to this East Midlands city than that. As Ian Beswick, director of corporate finance at accountant Tenon’s Nottingham office, remarks: “Nottingham has an extremely entrepreneurial atmosphere and a great mix of businesses. It’s also proven itself to be a very adaptable city in terms of adjusting to the changes in the wider economy.”
Traditionally, the Nottingham area was a major centre for manufacturing and textiles. And while manufacturing has declined across the UK, names such as Paul Smith and younger labels such as One True Saxon remain in Nottingham. Colin Shaw, chairman of East Midlands accountancy Cooper Parry singles this out as a key strength of the city.
“The businesses that have redefined themselves and not just survived but prospered are those that have focused on design and quality – things that can never be matched by cheap labour,” says Shaw.
Vijay Thakrar, managing partner of professional services firm Ernst & Young in the East Midlands, also believes the ability to adapt is one reason for the blue skies over Nottingham. “There is a real entrepreneurial spirit throughout the East Midlands region. Despite the decline of hosiery and footwear, these have been rapidly replaced by technical services, distribution, pharmaceuticals and professional services. People have been quick to adapt to new conditions,” he says.
Nottingham’s rise to being the capital of the East Midlands is seemingly set in stone. With the addition of Nottingham to the name of East Midlands Airport in January 2004, many are looking to Nottingham to lead the way with a fully modern, integrated transport system.
The Nottingham Express Transit (NET) tram system seemed ideally placed to deliver just that. Phase one of the NET is almost a year old. Running from Hucknall to the city’s north, into the city centre, and with a spur line running to Phoenix Park at junction 26 of the M1, the ninemile facility cost £200m to develop.
However, progress on the next planned phases for NET remains uncertain after the government pulled the plug on extensions elsewhere in the country. The route out to Chilwell past the Queen’s Medical Centre, and the route to Clifton through Wilford, both of which would offer huge benefits in reducing congestion on the city’s southern approaches, may have to wait.
Dominic Swift, a partner at Nottingham law firm Browne Jacobson, is quietly confident though. “NET has been phenomenally successful in reducing traffic on the routes in from the north of the city, and it would be silly, having started, not to see it through,” he says.
Shaw adds: “Over the course of 20 years in this city I’ve seen the steady, year-on-year build up of congestion, and while it’s too early to say if NET has been a success, I believe that if links are built out to junctions 24 and 25 of the M1, as well as junction 26, it will allow the city to grow.”
Swift concurs. “The key barriers to transport in Nottingham are the Trent and the motorway. Another Trent crossing, which is planned for the next stage of NET, would be of great benefit.”
Another benefit of consolidating NET would be the bringing on-stream of plans for the complete overhaul of the dated Nottingham Midland mainline railway station. Transforming the station is at the heart of the Greater Nottingham Partnership’s (GNP) plans for the regeneration of the city’s Southside. A regional transport hub linking train travellers to trams, buses, coaches and taxis, it would open a new gateway to the city and extend the city core further south. Development on the station site would include offices, shops and homes.
The two proposed NET lines would extend regeneration to the south of the station, including the deprived Meadows area. Linking the Meadows area to the city centre is a specific goal of the GNP, which aims to ensure that residents are not cut off from jobs and opportunities created in the city. And a modern transport interchange would provide a competitive advantage. “It would give us something that most cities don’t have,” says Swift.
Thakrar, however, warns that focusing too narrowly on the city core could backfire. “The proposed changes would benefit the city. But it’s a question of balancing that with the costs of improving transport across the wider region, which would make the city more accessible.
“Potential investors from Europe and the United States will be looking at the wider picture, it could be counter-productive to concentrate on the centre too much. The East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA) and others are doing a good job in co-ordinating efforts in this area.”
Both the continued drive to attract inward investment alluded to by Thakrar, and the spirit of entrepreneurship mentioned by both he and Beswick, have led to a burgeoning professional services community in Nottingham. Can it continue to grow?
“We see no reason why it can’t,” says Shaw. “Over the last year we’ve hired 46 people, ten at director or partner level. We’re now at 200 staff, and doubling that is in our business plan for the next five years.”
Beswick agrees. “I don’t think there is an end to the financial services boom. As long as the business community here is rich in high quality people there will be opportunities,” he says. Regional law firm Freethcartwright also reports rude health, with growth at around 10 per cent a year and several lawyers lured from major City firms.
But how many deals are actually done in the city? According to Beswick, the last six months of 2005 saw a flurry of activity. “Speaking to contacts and the competition, there looks to be plenty in the pipeline for the first half of 2004. Things are continuing in an upward trend,” he says.
Rupert Boddington is the regional director of corporate banking in the region for Royal Bank of Scotland and says he is impressed by the range and scope of deals done in the city. The £115m secondary management buyout of Hillary Blinds was generated from Nottingham, he says, while the bank’s Nottingham office also provided debt funding for the £120m secondary buyout of Menzies Hotel Group, and supported transactions involving Robert Prettie, Spaldings, Imagesound and Thorn Baker.
Boddington says of deals such as Menzies: “There is not the requirement to look outside the city boundaries for the expertise to deliver on these deals.”
Of course, Nottingham’s high level of graduate retention helps when it comes to the growth of the professional services core. However, some believe that larger firms could be doing more. Paul Macildowie, chief executive of professional recruitment firm Macildowie Associates, says there is “a dire shortage of part and newly qualified accountants,” a situation he ascribes to the “lack of recruitment at trainee levels by major organisations over the past few years”. He claims a recent survey by his firm showed that a quarter of young accountants in the Midlands regretted their decision to make a career in finance. Could a recruitment crisis in the sector be on the way?
Meanwhile, Nottingham’s universities have attracted widespread praise for their forward-looking commercial activities. From September the University of Nottingham’s new China campus will be offering an MSc in International Business, while Thakrar says both universities “work well with the private sector, especially in terms of research, technology and innovation”.
The boon in city living, led by areas such as the Lace Market, has underpinned the strength of the Nottingham property market over the last decade. Other innovative residential schemes such as Park Rock have really put the city on the map.
The last couple of years have also seen major schemes like NG2 and Cumberland Place raise the standards of the city’s office market to new heights. But where does Nottingham go from here?
In the long term, the Eastside regeneration scheme could transform Nottingham. In total, it spans around 40 acres and could bring 5 million sq ft of commercial and residential space to a previously unloved area of the city.
“Along with the Broadmarsh retail development, this is one of the biggest schemes Nottingham has ever seen,” says Jerry Holmes, developments director of Eastside & City Developments (E&CD), a joint venture between developer Roxylight and construction firm Laing O’Rourke. “Nottingham is a city on the up, and if we can create the right quality of product, this will be something very special.”
E&CD submitted an outline planning application for phase one in June 2004, following lengthy consultation with Nottingham City Council and Nottingham Regeneration. If consent is given, a more detailed plan will be put together this year, with E&CD hoping to be on site by the end of 2005.
At 33.8 acres, the phase one ‘island site’ makes up the bulk of Eastside. The site, which will bring 1.5 million sq ft of office space and 1.5 million sq ft of residential to market, is connected to the Southside and Waterside regeneration zones. Regeneration of Eastside is intended to unlock the troubled areas of Sneinton and St Anns.
Browne Jacobson’s Swift identifies the Waterside as a “huge opportunity to regenerate”. The site covers 250 acres of underused land on the Nottingham side of the River Trent, and could provide up to 4,000 homes. The first part of the scheme to happen will likely be Trent Marina, a top-end housing scheme that could act as a catalyst. With less clearance work, and no inherent social problems to address, Swift thinks the Waterside area’s circumstances are more favourable than those of Eastside.
The Broadmarsh scheme, as Holmes says, is capable of putting Nottingham on the map. The £400m scheme, carried out by Westfield, is intended to match Birmingham’s Bullring in size once completed. It is regularly quoted that the number of high street retailers looking to open up in Nottingham totals around 300 – should the public enquiry this spring reveal no stumbling blocks, Nottingham’s already admirable retail offer could be given a further shot in the arm.
So what are Nottingham’s key objectives for the next decade? Where will further growth come from? Both Thakrar and Beswick say that the pharmaceuticals and healthcare sector is the one to watch. “There is the legacy of Boots,” says Thakrar. “On top of that, there are the former BASF facilities which were bequeathed to the city and the universities’ incubator facilities. BioCity (the 130,000 sq ft science incubator set up by the universities and EMDA) is tremendously important.”
Beswick sees major opportunities in healthcare. “It is an area where massive growth will happen. There is huge interest in healthcare from investors. Places like Nottingham, with a focus on science, can capitalise on this,” he says.
“Nottingham has to align its objectives with EMDA,” says Shaw. “The goals have to be to regenerate communities, attract new businesses and jobs, increase business start-ups, and continue growth in technology. Increasing tourism should also be our aim, which is where Dr John Heeley (formerly of Marketing Birmingham) and Experience Nottingham will be important.”
Co-operation is the name of the game for Thakrar. “The city needs to work with the other regional cities to achieve EMDA’s vision of a top 20 region in Europe and capitalise on the infrastructure and workforce advantages it enjoys. We shouldn’t be afraid to shout about the benefits of Nottingham either – the culture, the leisure, the people,” he says.
Shaw for one is not short of confidence. “Nottingham is an obvious choice for Lyons Review jobs, among other things. It’s our job to make sure we get more than our fair share,” he says. “Nottingham offers a great environment and is a realistic alternative for relocating from the South East.
Time for the next big thing
Nottingham has long been seen as party town, a city renowned for its bustling nightlife – one of the most enduring urban myths of recent times had it that women outnumbered men by some three to one, leading to coach-loads of tourists piling into the city to spend their hard-earned. But there’s far more to this East Midlands city than that. As Ian Beswick, director of corporate finance at accountant Tenon’s Nottingham office, remarks: “Nottingham has an extremely entrepreneurial atmosphere and a great mix of businesses. It’s also proven itself to be a very adaptable city in terms of adjusting to the changes in the wider economy.”
Traditionally, the Nottingham area was a major centre for manufacturing and textiles. And while manufacturing has declined across the UK, names such as Paul Smith and younger labels such as One True Saxon remain in Nottingham. Colin Shaw, chairman of East Midlands accountancy Cooper Parry singles this out as a key strength of the city.
“The businesses that have redefined themselves and not just survived but prospered are those that have focused on design and quality – things that can never be matched by cheap labour,” says Shaw.
Vijay Thakrar, managing partner of professional services firm Ernst & Young in the East Midlands, also believes the ability to adapt is one reason for the blue skies over Nottingham. “There is a real entrepreneurial spirit throughout the East Midlands region. Despite the decline of hosiery and footwear, these have been rapidly replaced by technical services, distribution, pharmaceuticals and professional services. People have been quick to adapt to new conditions,” he says.
Nottingham’s rise to being the capital of the East Midlands is seemingly set in stone. With the addition of Nottingham to the name of East Midlands Airport in January 2004, many are looking to Nottingham to lead the way with a fully modern, integrated transport system.
The Nottingham Express Transit (NET) tram system seemed ideally placed to deliver just that. Phase one of the NET is almost a year old. Running from Hucknall to the city’s north, into the city centre, and with a spur line running to Phoenix Park at junction 26 of the M1, the ninemile facility cost £200m to develop.
However, progress on the next planned phases for NET remains uncertain after the government pulled the plug on extensions elsewhere in the country. The route out to Chilwell past the Queen’s Medical Centre, and the route to Clifton through Wilford, both of which would offer huge benefits in reducing congestion on the city’s southern approaches, may have to wait.
Dominic Swift, a partner at Nottingham law firm Browne Jacobson, is quietly confident though. “NET has been phenomenally successful in reducing traffic on the routes in from the north of the city, and it would be silly, having started, not to see it through,” he says.
Shaw adds: “Over the course of 20 years in this city I’ve seen the steady, year-on-year build up of congestion, and while it’s too early to say if NET has been a success, I believe that if links are built out to junctions 24 and 25 of the M1, as well as junction 26, it will allow the city to grow.”
Swift concurs. “The key barriers to transport in Nottingham are the Trent and the motorway. Another Trent crossing, which is planned for the next stage of NET, would be of great benefit.”
Another benefit of consolidating NET would be the bringing on-stream of plans for the complete overhaul of the dated Nottingham Midland mainline railway station. Transforming the station is at the heart of the Greater Nottingham Partnership’s (GNP) plans for the regeneration of the city’s Southside. A regional transport hub linking train travellers to trams, buses, coaches and taxis, it would open a new gateway to the city and extend the city core further south. Development on the station site would include offices, shops and homes.
The two proposed NET lines would extend regeneration to the south of the station, including the deprived Meadows area. Linking the Meadows area to the city centre is a specific goal of the GNP, which aims to ensure that residents are not cut off from jobs and opportunities created in the city. And a modern transport interchange would provide a competitive advantage. “It would give us something that most cities don’t have,” says Swift.
Thakrar, however, warns that focusing too narrowly on the city core could backfire. “The proposed changes would benefit the city. But it’s a question of balancing that with the costs of improving transport across the wider region, which would make the city more accessible.
“Potential investors from Europe and the United States will be looking at the wider picture, it could be counter-productive to concentrate on the centre too much. The East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA) and others are doing a good job in co-ordinating efforts in this area.”
Both the continued drive to attract inward investment alluded to by Thakrar, and the spirit of entrepreneurship mentioned by both he and Beswick, have led to a burgeoning professional services community in Nottingham. Can it continue to grow?
“We see no reason why it can’t,” says Shaw. “Over the last year we’ve hired 46 people, ten at director or partner level. We’re now at 200 staff, and doubling that is in our business plan for the next five years.”
Beswick agrees. “I don’t think there is an end to the financial services boom. As long as the business community here is rich in high quality people there will be opportunities,” he says. Regional law firm Freethcartwright also reports rude health, with growth at around 10 per cent a year and several lawyers lured from major City firms.
But how many deals are actually done in the city? According to Beswick, the last six months of 2005 saw a flurry of activity. “Speaking to contacts and the competition, there looks to be plenty in the pipeline for the first half of 2004. Things are continuing in an upward trend,” he says.
Rupert Boddington is the regional director of corporate banking in the region for Royal Bank of Scotland and says he is impressed by the range and scope of deals done in the city. The £115m secondary management buyout of Hillary Blinds was generated from Nottingham, he says, while the bank’s Nottingham office also provided debt funding for the £120m secondary buyout of Menzies Hotel Group, and supported transactions involving Robert Prettie, Spaldings, Imagesound and Thorn Baker.
Boddington says of deals such as Menzies: “There is not the requirement to look outside the city boundaries for the expertise to deliver on these deals.”
Of course, Nottingham’s high level of graduate retention helps when it comes to the growth of the professional services core. However, some believe that larger firms could be doing more. Paul Macildowie, chief executive of professional recruitment firm Macildowie Associates, says there is “a dire shortage of part and newly qualified accountants,” a situation he ascribes to the “lack of recruitment at trainee levels by major organisations over the past few years”. He claims a recent survey by his firm showed that a quarter of young accountants in the Midlands regretted their decision to make a career in finance. Could a recruitment crisis in the sector be on the way?
Meanwhile, Nottingham’s universities have attracted widespread praise for their forward-looking commercial activities. From September the University of Nottingham’s new China campus will be offering an MSc in International Business, while Thakrar says both universities “work well with the private sector, especially in terms of research, technology and innovation”.
The boon in city living, led by areas such as the Lace Market, has underpinned the strength of the Nottingham property market over the last decade. Other innovative residential schemes such as Park Rock have really put the city on the map.
The last couple of years have also seen major schemes like NG2 and Cumberland Place raise the standards of the city’s office market to new heights. But where does Nottingham go from here?
In the long term, the Eastside regeneration scheme could transform Nottingham. In total, it spans around 40 acres and could bring 5 million sq ft of commercial and residential space to a previously unloved area of the city.
“Along with the Broadmarsh retail development, this is one of the biggest schemes Nottingham has ever seen,” says Jerry Holmes, developments director of Eastside & City Developments (E&CD), a joint venture between developer Roxylight and construction firm Laing O’Rourke. “Nottingham is a city on the up, and if we can create the right quality of product, this will be something very special.”
E&CD submitted an outline planning application for phase one in June 2004, following lengthy consultation with Nottingham City Council and Nottingham Regeneration. If consent is given, a more detailed plan will be put together this year, with E&CD hoping to be on site by the end of 2005.
At 33.8 acres, the phase one ‘island site’ makes up the bulk of Eastside. The site, which will bring 1.5 million sq ft of office space and 1.5 million sq ft of residential to market, is connected to the Southside and Waterside regeneration zones. Regeneration of Eastside is intended to unlock the troubled areas of Sneinton and St Anns.
Browne Jacobson’s Swift identifies the Waterside as a “huge opportunity to regenerate”. The site covers 250 acres of underused land on the Nottingham side of the River Trent, and could provide up to 4,000 homes. The first part of the scheme to happen will likely be Trent Marina, a top-end housing scheme that could act as a catalyst. With less clearance work, and no inherent social problems to address, Swift thinks the Waterside area’s circumstances are more favourable than those of Eastside.
The Broadmarsh scheme, as Holmes says, is capable of putting Nottingham on the map. The £400m scheme, carried out by Westfield, is intended to match Birmingham’s Bullring in size once completed. It is regularly quoted that the number of high street retailers looking to open up in Nottingham totals around 300 – should the public enquiry this spring reveal no stumbling blocks, Nottingham’s already admirable retail offer could be given a further shot in the arm.
So what are Nottingham’s key objectives for the next decade? Where will further growth come from? Both Thakrar and Beswick say that the pharmaceuticals and healthcare sector is the one to watch. “There is the legacy of Boots,” says Thakrar. “On top of that, there are the former BASF facilities which were bequeathed to the city and the universities’ incubator facilities. BioCity (the 130,000 sq ft science incubator set up by the universities and EMDA) is tremendously important.”
Beswick sees major opportunities in healthcare. “It is an area where massive growth will happen. There is huge interest in healthcare from investors. Places like Nottingham, with a focus on science, can capitalise on this,” he says.
“Nottingham has to align its objectives with EMDA,” says Shaw. “The goals have to be to regenerate communities, attract new businesses and jobs, increase business start-ups, and continue growth in technology. Increasing tourism should also be our aim, which is where Dr John Heeley (formerly of Marketing Birmingham) and Experience Nottingham will be important.”
Co-operation is the name of the game for Thakrar. “The city needs to work with the other regional cities to achieve EMDA’s vision of a top 20 region in Europe and capitalise on the infrastructure and workforce advantages it enjoys. We shouldn’t be afraid to shout about the benefits of Nottingham either – the culture, the leisure, the people,” he says.
Shaw for one is not short of confidence. “Nottingham is an obvious choice for Lyons Review jobs, among other things. It’s our job to make sure we get more than our fair share,” he says. “Nottingham offers a great environment and is a realistic alternative for relocating from the South East.