Insider Media Limited

STAFFORDSHIRE

First it's off, now it's on again. March sees The Football Association admit that it is "exploring options" about what to do with its fabled national football academy at Burton-on-Trent, where it has already invested £315m in what was supposed to be a rival to Clairefontaine in France (universally but not necessarily correctly credited with inspiring France's World Cup win in 1998). Then in October, the FA's executive council decides Burton's not so bad after all, and reprieves the centre. The association claims it has planning consent for a hotel and is seeking commercial partners. Wayne and Colleen could yet be striding through the streets of Burton on those quiet nights off. Stone Computers - a PC supplier based in, amazingly, Stone - undergoes a £320m management buyout.

Talking points
In November, telecoms billionaire John Caudwell, who for the third successive year tops Insider's Rich List with an estimated worth of £31.35bn, strings up the For Sale sign round his Stoke-based Phones4u empire. Even cautious estimates put the likely sale price in the area of £31bn. Frustratingly, the man who has done so much for Stoke since being elected as mayor in 2002, Mike Wolfe, is booted out in May's elections. Wolfe can count improvements to the public realm, council housing and street cleaning services, and the A500 roundabout removal programme, as successes. Bizarrely, one in ten ballot papers is returned spoiled.

Big deal
In December Burton-based Punch Taverns, with over 8,200 pubs throughout the UK, announces the proposed acquisition of Spirit Group, bringing the group total to over 9,500. It pays a jaw-dropping £32.68bn for a company formed by demerging from Punch in April 2002. When news of Spirit's readiness for sale breaks in late November both its suitors, Punch chief executive Giles Thorley and entrepreneur Robert Tchenguiz, are at a Scottish & Newcastle event in St Petersburg, conjuring up images of them hurrying through Heathrow's arrivals terminal to table their bids first.

Hot property
Stoke-on-Trent uses an Insider round table to launch its city centre masterplan aimed at breathing life into its commercial core. Co-author Simon Bedford says: "Stoke doesn't have a true, functioning city centre. It doesn't have a business heart, it never has had."

THE BLACK COUNTRY

Too long in Birmingham's shadow, Insider reports of an upsurge in optimism in the area. A run of major announcements including waterside development, big inward investments and landmark art projects reinforce the perception that the Black Country is on the way back up. Mike Bushell, head of regeneration at Black Country Chamber, says business optimism is at its highest for a decade.

Big deal
Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries carries on picking up North West pubs. After the £3120m purchase of Burtonwood, it pays £346m for Cumbrian brewer Jennings Brothers and its 128-pub estate.

Hot property
Will Alsop and Tom Bloxham get to work in the Black Country. Alsop's baby is The Public arts centre in West Bromwich. It's good, no, really. In Walsall Urban Splash hires Austrian architect Querkraft.

WORCESTERSHIRE

Redditch-based Mettis Aerospace secures a £310m contract to supply forged aerostructure components to Airbus Military for its A400-M model.

Talking points
Malvern, the birthplace of radar technology, could be in for some overdue recognition as Qinetiq - formerly the unsexy Royal Signals Radar Establishment and then the Defence Evaluation & Research Agency (DERA) - heads towards a Stock Market flotation. Former DERA man Dr Cliff Jones is also hoping for success with new venture Zbd, which has developed a liquid crystal display (LCD) that retains its image without a power supply.

WARWICKSHIRE

Chris Swan, founder of Stratford-based car parts group Finelist and one-time Midlands businessman of the year, is banned from holding directorships for four years after a trial at the High Court. Swan was disqualified for failing to properly enquire into the cheque kiting policy conducted by Finelist in the late 1990s. In his judgement Mr Justice Etherton says Swan's conduct fell "far below the level of competence to be expected of a director in his position".
Coventry City moves into its new stadium, which perhaps wisely after the closure of the Browns Lane factory, isn't called the Jaguar Stadium as anticipated but the Ricoh Arena instead. With the government dithering over resort casinos, Coventry City Council goes right ahead and builds one anyway at the stadium complex - just in case.

Hot property
The Midlands' largest pre-let of 2005 is agreed in June when agricultural equipment giant Agco signs for a £321m, 81,000 sq ft headquarters in Abbey Park. In September another Warwickshire jewel changes hands as Firoka, the property group headed by Tanzanian entrepreneur Firoz Kassam, buys Studley Castle. And Irish investor Quinn Group buys the Belfry for £3186m.

BIRMINGHAM

With knights in shining armour failing to appear, administrators pull the plug on MG Rover in May, right before a General Election. Indeed, who can ever forget the unseemly Blair & Brown show rolling into Longbridge in a last act of defiance? Encouragingly, the region's automotive sector saw the writing on the wall five years beforehand and protected itself. Quite what the intentions of Nanjing Automobile Corporation are, which bought the assets for £353m, is unclear.

Talking points

The Central Library row, whether to relocate it to a flash £3180m scheme in the Eastside or split the existing site into two buildings, rumbles on. February sees the council commission a report, but the findings jar with what the leader wants, Another enquiry finds the remit of the first report wasn't broad enough. If you've not followed it, don't worry, it's far from over and easy to pick up at any stage. The council moves on the redevelopment of New Street station though, and in March secures £3200m towards the £3350m scheme, with Advantage West Midlands matching the government's £3100m. The city council is split over bids for the one resort casino the government is set to grant. Birmingham City and Las Vegas Sands' bid ticks all the regeneration boxes, but elements in the council say the NEC should instead be the favoured bid. Birmingham's marketing is stepped up, with the opening in May of the Birmingham W1 business embassy in Piccadilly. Marketing Birmingham chief executive Neil Rami says it will engage investors, conference organisers, media and government. Go to it, guys.

Hot property
Abstract Land will steal a march on several long-slated schemes if it gets Colmore Plaza, a 300,000 sq ft office scheme, up and running. But rumours abound that Ballymore Properties' Snow Hill scheme is set to attract a hefty pre-let in accountant KPMG.

LEICESTER

Talking point
Steve Sargent, the affable finance director of Leicester-based jeweller Goldsmiths, entertains an audience of Insider readers with a frank assessment of how tough life on the High Street has been in 2005. He also tells us how his boss, Jurek Piasecki, keeps a range of watches in his office drawer so that when the reps from Cartier, Rolex et al come calling he's wearing the right thing.

Big deal
Leicester-based software provider Torex Retail acquires XN Checkout Holdings for £372.2m, making it the market leader in the UK hospitality sector.

Hot property
Developer Akeler does a volte-face, turning its back on years of out of town business parks by signing up to develop the old city centre police station site in Leicester's Charles Street. Leicester City Council wins the Design Excellence award at the East Midlands Property Awards for the Depot, a bus station turned business centre (below).

NOTTINGHAM

Casino and bingo group Gala agrees a £31.3bn refinancing just two years after its tertiary buyout. Candover, Cinven and Permira now own around 30 per cent of the business each. Gala also cancels its 50-50 joint venture with US casino operator Harrah's when the government caps resort casinos. Science incubator BioCity Nottingham shows that there's some substance to Gordon Brown's labelling Nottingham as a "science city" with the announcement that it is to expand its operations. Newark-based smoothie maker PJ Smoothies, one of the fastest-growing companies in the region, sells out to Pepsico for an undisclosed sum in March. Back when it was called Pete & Johnny, the company implied that "Pete & Johnny" were two impossibly cool Californian types, but it now emerges they are a telecoms entrepreneur and some branding consultant.

Talking points
Less enamoured with the City is Center Parcs chief executive Martin Dalby, who in a cover story interview tells Insider that following December 2003's flotation the City still doesn't understand his business. At the time of January's interview shares had dropped from 100p to around 84p. As 2005 progressed things didn't get any happier for Dalby - by the year end shares were hovering at the 60p mark. Nottingham's status as a sporting city takes a hit, with double European Cup winners Nottingham Forest sinking to English football's third tier for the first time in generations. But Notts does win cricket's county championship, while Trent Bridge hosts a thrilling Ashes test, bringing the city's professional services sector to a halt for three days.

Big Deal
With the supermarkets cutting into its market share and the crisis on the High Street showing no sign of abating, troubled chemist Boots announces its intention to undertake a £37bn "merger of equals" with Alliance UniChem. The deal could yet be derailed by shareholders puzzled quite how Boots has managed to get itself into this position.

Hot property
Blueprint, the regeneration body tasked with shifting all the sites that East Midlands Development Agency and English Partnerships couldn't, announces that its first site will be a new phase of development at Nottingham Science & Technology Park.

DERBY

Headlines
Derby-based Menzies Hotel Group, the 14-strong chain set up by former Thistle Hotels executive Nick Menzies in 1992, is bought by Nikko Principal Investments for £3120m.

Talking point
East Midlands Development Agency chairman Bryan Jackson uses Insider's Derby Economic Forum to urge the city to start talking itself up and stop the "nonsense" surrounding the renaming of East Midlands Airport - a parochial argument that's getting us nowhere. And so say all of us.

Hot property
Australian retail developer Westfield shows that it's coping with England better than its compatriot Multiplex, bogged down as it is at Wembley, by signing up a string of occupiers for its £3310m redevelopment of the Eagle Centre. The latest convert is National Amusements, which will open a £330m Cinema de Lux at the site (below).

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

Talking point
With plenty of land, money and a new university to capitalise on government growth plans for the county, an Insider breakfast hears that the future should be bright for Northamptonshire. But our forum hears that the county must address its political infighting to achieve its potential. Stewart Buller from Phoenix IT, one of Northampton's biggest employers, also warns of a wider skill shortage in the region. "We increasingly find that we need specialist IT skills which do not exist here. We need people in the Northamptonshire area to get those skills through our universities."

Hot property
Battle-hardened regeneration boss Bob Lane gets his plans for Corby moving. Bee Bee Developments is to build a mammoth housing project at Priors Hall, near Rockingham Speedway, while Land Securities could oversee a retail revolution. And finally, there's progress on getting the town linked to the rest of the western world with a passenger railway station, as the government concedes that there's a "business case" for a railway.

LINCOLNSHIRE

Big Deal
After more than 80 years as a partnership organisation, Sleaford-headquartered florist Interflora is incorporated as a company in February. Venture capitalist 3i, beating off 14 competitors, pays £323.2m to buy the organisation out. The deal is narrowly pipped for Insider's Deal of the Year at our Dealmakers Awards.

Hot property
The University of Lincoln is a surprise winner at Insider's East Midlands Property Awards. The judges are impressed by the way the university has integrated itself into the city in only a few short years, since relocating from Hull in 2001. Indeed, polls suggest that a majority of prospective university-goers believe Lincoln to be one of the UK's oldest institutions. A bit of re-education required here, we think.