< PreviousREGIONAL SUMMITEast Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk20The panel and audience remainedundecided as to whether the cities in theEast Midlands should work together, butnearly all present were in agreement thatthe region had to unite behind bringing theHS2 line to Toton.From the audience, Michelle Craven-Falkner of Geldards and the Derby andDerbyshire Rail Forum, said: “The EastMidlands is lagging behind when it comesto HS2, and if miss out on the line then itcould be catastrophic for the region’seconomy. There is no clear voicesupporting HS2, and that’smade very clear when yousee how the other cities inthe region really haven’t putany support behind Derby’s bid forthe HS2 College to come to the city.”The panelists agreed. AndrewSpringhall, chief executive ofBlusource, said: “We should beshouting from the rooftops aboutHS2, but we don’t seem to be. It’sthe most important thing happeningin the East Midlands right now. Weshould accept that the line is goingto Toton and get on with it. But thereseems little cohesion and littlesupport.”David Williams, chairman ofGeldards, thought it was time tochallenge the public sector over thematter. He said: “The private sector has itsown businesses to run, but we shouldtaking the public sector to task over thefact that HS2 isn’t top of their agenda. Wehave to confront them about this.”Meanwhile, there was controversy overwhich city was leading the wayeconomically in the East Midlands. Whilst ashow of hands revealed that the vastmajority thought that Nottingham had thetop spot, the panel had other ideas.Gary Church of Willmott Dixon saidthings were changing: “If you’d ask me 15years ago I would say Nottingham wasleading the way, but Derby and Leicesterhave caught up. I’d say that Leicester wasnow the predominant city. However, if youasked me which city Willmott Dixon istargeting, then I’d say Lincoln. That’swhere we see most potential.”Richard Farnsworth, tax director at PwCadded: “For years Nottingham City Councilwas seen as anti-business, and that’starnished its image as Queen of the EastMidlands. However, I think the biggestmistake that Nottingham makes if that itdoesn’t capitalise on Robin Hood enough.”But Williams thought Nottingham stillheld top spot: “Nottingham is still theQueen, however I do think that Derby isthe best at marketing itself. Nottingham isa Core City and therefore the governmentwill look at Nottingham as such. The biggerquestion is: does it matter?”The East Midlands lacks real leadershipand should take its cue from the successachieved by Manchester when it appointedHoward Bernstein as chief executive theCity Council, according to Church.REGIONAL SUMMITwww.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 21He said that working together as separate citiesor organisations is “not easy”, and pointed to theexample of the West Midlands as proof.“There are seven different authorities in the WestMidlands, and none of themspeak to each other,” saidChurch. “What we need in theEast Midlands is the rightleadership, and for the businesscommunity to unite behindwhoever that person might be.The model is Howard Bernsteinin Greater Manchester.”David Williams, chairman ofGeldards, pointed out somegeographical issues: “Emdathrew money at a place thatdidn’t actually exist. the LEP hascar-crashed Nottingham andDerby together. I’m troubled bythe fact that there isn’t actuallyan East Midlands.”Richard Farnsworth, taxdirector at PwC, meanwhile,said that localism was hard to avoid. “Parochialismis inevitable,” he said, “and there’s no doubt thatpeople are loyal to the individual city they liveand/or work in. We can’t just pretend that won’thappen - it’s a part of how people live their lives.”Many thanks to PwC for hosting the event.ROUND TABLEEast Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk22Derby appears to punch above its weight –what is the secret of its success?Michelle MacKenzie-Cooper: Historically, thecity has had a strong engineering andtechnology base which has helped the localeconomy hugely. Coupled with the Universityof Derby’s excellent graduate programme andwe have a recipe for success.Keith Horton: Some 96 per cent of ourgraduates go straight into work or study. We’vealso found that Derby is home to the highestaverage salaries outside of London and theSouth-East. However, we have to ask howmany of those people actually live outside ofthe city centre.Benjamin Benn: In 2008 when we set upSilver Pride we realised we had to cut our clothaccordingly to the economic climate. That’swhy we’ve continued to outperform the market.Sean Price: We originally set up in Bristol,but we came to Derby when we realised thecity was putting a lot of local focus and effortinto tech businesses – and that worked out tobe very important to us.Colin Mckinnon: I’m relatively new to Derby,but I’ve noticed that it’s an understatedplace. It’s also a place with a vast array ofcompanies who are driving the economy.We’re looking at reshoring and the benefitsit brings to the local supply chain.Mark Dryden: Derby is a nice place towork and live, with really great people andbusinesses. One of the reasons I left myprevious employer was that they wantedme to be more nationally-based – I likedworking in and around Derby.David Kaplan: Everyone talks aboutDerby being a high-tech city, and of coursewe have Rolls-Royce and its supply chain,but after that Derby doesn’t feel like ahigh-tech city to me. We’ve got normalbusinesses doing normal things.Benn: I think there’s an over-reliance onRolls-Royce and Bombardier. When thebanks weren’t lending the corporate giantswere lending to SMEs – or taking them in-house. If Rolls-Royce or Bombardier forsome reason left the city, then Derbywould have problems.Michelle Craven-Faulkner: WhenBombardier was thinking of leaving its citysite 18 months ago there was talk of 2,500jobs being lost. But the supply chain goesso much wider, and I think we’d have beenlooking at around 10-15,000 people beingmade redundant. With this is mind,championing SMEs is something that weshould all do.McKinnon: I think a lot of credit shouldgo to the City Council for being proactivetowards the business community,especially around the DEGF. They do seemto recognise that the supply chain needshelping.Martin Langsdale: I’m a big fan of theConnect Derby project. We are an SMEDerby - Room to liveHow does Derby manage to pay the highest average earningsoutside of London and the south-east, and how are plans forcity centre living coming on in the city? Our round table,sponsored by Smith Cooper, found out.David KaplanColin MckinnonBenjamin BennPanel:Michelle MacKenzie-Cooper,Smith CooperBenjamin Benn, Silver PrideSean Price: iBox-SecurityMichelle Craven-Faulkner,GeldardsKeith Horton, University ofDerbyMark Dryden, Box09David Kaplan, NelsonsMartin Langsdale, Raybould& CoColin Mckinnon, EnsciteLaura Smith, SyntaxConsultancywww.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 23ROUND TABLEcity, but we don’t seem to know it. Derby’sfuture is definitely based around the SMEsector.Laura Smit: We’re passionate aboutSMEs, but my previous role was workingas a recruiter for Rolls-Royce, and thepeople who work there are the unsungheroes of Derby.Does the city have a healthprofessional services sector?Horton: It’s part of the Council’s desireto see more professionals on the streets ofDerby. To do that we need more citycentre housing, but Castleward is selling alot off-plan. We have to build the righthouses, though, as a growing percentageof young professionals are putting theiremphasis on living and not working.Kaplan: We’re going to struggle toattract firms to the city centre as there isn’tany good quality office space available.Langsdale: We’ve created our ownmonster. Everyone has gone to eitherPride Park or the Wyvern.Price: We joined Marketing Derbybecause of its suits on the streets pledge,but Derby promotes itself as a tech city,when, really 9 out of 10 creatives aren’tsuits on the streets kind of people.MacKenzie-Cooper: If the Riversidescheme had gone ahead, then therewould’ve been a better mix in the citycentre that would attract businesses in.Staff want to be able to go out atlunchtimes and have a look around theshops.Dryden: Getting off and on Pride Park inthe mornings and evenings is becoming anightmare.Langsdale: I think it’s a combination;Westfield brought a lot to Derby, but alsodemanded three-quarters of the city. Ithink we should have refurbished theEagle Centre. Pre-Westfield it was reallynice to walk around the Cathedral Quarter– we have to ask did Westfield really bringanything new to the city. I’m not againstWestfield, but it had a huge effect on otherparts of the city centre. Also: Derby’spublic transport system isn’t good enoughto support the city; we really need to finda better balance.There’s been a great emphasis put onresidential development, but howimportant is this really? Doprofessionals really want to live in thecity centre?Langsdale: We missed an opportunitywhen city centre living was in vogue a fewyears back. The first and residentialdevelopment should be built is oppositethe river. There shouldn’t be any other resischemes in the city until Riverside is built.We need a critical mass.Michelle MacKenzie-CooperMichelle Craven-FaulknerSean PriceMartin LangsdaleMark DrydenLaura SmitKeith HortonIT: A safety firstapproachEven a 3-person company can’t rule out the need for cyber securityreviews in their businesses - says Sean Price of iBox-Security.The government recently allocating some £860M to itscyber security efforts particularly focusing on therecently launched CERT-UK (http://cert.gov.uk) whichaims to provide advisory notices of cyber security issuesrelated to national security. CERT-UK with Chris Gibsonformer cyber security chief of global bankingcorporation Citigroup at the helm launched in the lastcouple of monthscertainly seems like thefirst milestone towardsachieving a moreproactive approach tocyber security in the UK.Because it’s not justgovernments and largepublic companies thatneed worry aboutcomputer security, withthe average cost of acyber security attack ranging from £400,000 - £800,000every business small and large needs to be aware of theimplications of cyber threats. Smaller companies with smaller budgets still need toface the facts that these things occur and in order toremain competitive in the market place and resilient tocurrent climate - IT security is something they need tokeep in mind. With everything moving to the cloud itscrucial there are policies and procedures in place tomonitor goings on across their network.From system downtime, lowering staff productivityand of course legal and financial problems that mayoccur due to a cyber attack there are many facets totake into account. These problems stem from poorlyconfigured network appliances, out of date software,weak passwords, staff training and much more.To give an example of possible threats you may nothave thought of as being important enough to consider.What about Dropbox or similar ‘cloud’ data sharingaccounts - it’s not just what you put into it that you needto be careful of but what others can put into it also. It’s not unheard of during security audits we performto see not only small business owners, but mid levelexecs, CEOs and more placing crucial companyinformation into sync services. This poses a threat inmore ways than one as you may share certain foldersor files with others & this happens to allow others to notonly ‘read’ what youshare but also ‘write’ toyour shared foldersmeaning a virus orsimilar maliciousprogram could end up inyour system without youever clicking a thing.Once onto your systemthere’s no end to wherethis may stop.So whats the solution -stop using these servicesaltogether? No of course not - but to be vigilant aboutwhich you use, how you use it and who you giveaccess to even if its only a single folder shared. That’s just one of the many things we see happening onroutine audits. You may not lose 40 million credit cards likeshopping giant Target did in 2013, be at risk of losingtrade secrets or having your corporate data leakedacross the Internet. But what would happen if yourbusiness systems halted for a day, a week, a month?Published author losing a manuscript, finance directorshaving their entire systems wiped out for ‘fun’ by acomputer hacker. Companies are rarely ‘targeted’ anymore with much of the ‘hacking’ being done foramusement by a variety of age groups across the globe. What you need to take away from this is theknowledge that policies and procedures need to be putin place for any sized business, small, medium or large.Contact Sean Price via email or on 01332 650331.With the average cost of a cybersecurity attack ranging from £400,000- £800,000 every business small andlarge needs to be aware of theimplications of cyber threats.INFORMATION TECHNOLOGYEast Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk24INFORMATION TECHNOLOGYwww.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 25LEPEast Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk26Graham Mulholland, chief executive ofEPM: Technology: “Behind closed doorsthe LEP is gathering momentum. “Relationships are in place and gettingstronger with ministers and senioradvisers. Our profile has changed a lot inthe last 12 months on this for sure. “Slightly more importantly in my eyes isseeing the business community starting totake time to understand the LEP and it’s allthe stronger for this. “It’s also not going to be a top heavyorganisation either. It is all aboutpartnerships which can look at times a bitwoolly. But this is also gatheringmomentum and we’re starting to see someshape to this. “They also now have funding comingwhich will have to move quickly into keyprojects I would expect, as there is anelection round the corner. “So it’s here to stay business leadersneed to buy into it and understand itquickly in my view.Simon Browning of UHY:“Nottinghamshire has a well-establishedbusiness community where SMEs arelooking to make the most of opportunities.What impresses me about businesses inthe East Midlands is that they are resilient– it’s been a tough few years, but againand again, they bounce back.“The East Midlands is riding high – withexport, growth and employment higherthan other UK regions outside GreaterLondon. UHY believes that SMEs andentrepreneurs are therefore the lifebloodof the British economy and in the EastMidlands, have played a major part inlifting the region out of recession.“As these companies grow, they play adominant role in economic output andemployment. Helping SMEs to grow –beyond start up phase – is thereforeD2N2 LEP– more thanjust a postcode?The annual conference of the D2N2 Local EnterprisePartnership (LEP) might’ve been packed to the rafters, butis it really working? East Midlands Business Link askedthree local business leaders if they thought the LEP wasdoing its jobGraham Mulhollandwww.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 27critical to the long term economic health of Nottinghamshire andthe East Midlands. It is vital that the LEP ensures that it focuses onsupporting these businesses if we are to continue to rise from therecessionary years.“We need to focus on our start ups and growing businesses –and therefore support and funding is necessary from the LEP. Fiftyper cent of start up businesses fail in the first five years – butthese are the SMEs of the future. Support needs to be given toentrepreneurs of the future in terms of strategic partnerships, longterm help – and financial advice. “The LEP is playing its part in helping our SMEs – and I am surewill be focusing on our growing businesses over the following fewyears to develop our growing talent and propelling them into themajor employers of the future.”David Browning, director of MediCity: “Interesting question;but the better question might be: Is the business communityworking to enable D2N2 to work? That was the clear challengerunning through the D2N2 annual conference held in the MediCityMeeting Space recently, and one I commit myself to support.Having secured £174.4m from the Governments’ Local GrowthFund for the next six years, the small management team is to becongratulated for their tactical work, but it means those of us inthe business community must now step-up to deliver the jobs andwealth that we have collectively promised.“Several messages have stuck with me since the conferenceand I’ll be taking them, and applying them to the MediCity way ofdoing things. First, ‘attitude matters more than money’; that’scertainly true when you are starting a new business incubator likeMediCity as it compels you to look for partners who can also helpyou succeed. Secondly, ‘we can’t do business today as we did inthe past’; innovative companies based in MediCity certainlyalready know this, and we are helping them to shape newbusiness models to suit emerging markets.“Third, ‘we can change perceptions’; this means we have acollective responsibility to get the media excited about what weare doing, especially in the key sectors identified by the LEP. Andfinally, D2N2 may already be pulling things together and leadingwith a light touch, but ‘are we performing at the top of our game?’As a triathlete preparing to compete for Team GB in the CrossTriathlon World Championships in Germany this August, Ipersonally know what this looks and feels like. MediCity exists tohelp entrepreneurial companies perform well, and I feel inspiredby the D2N2 team led by Peter Richardson to play our part inmaking D2N2 the most successful LEP in the country.”Simon BrowningDavid BrowningLEPCOMMERCIAL PROPERTYEast Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk28Northampton is a place for growthsays commercial property agent Prop-Search, perfectly positioned at the heartof the country and the crossroads of therail and road network, providing apremier location for inward and localinvestors. Importantly, Northamptonhas a serious appetite for growth,welcoming employment and housingdevelopment, with a portfolio of marketready sites and premises.Northampton was recently recognisedas one of the top locations in the UK forbusiness by Santander Corporate &Commercial Banking’s ‘UK Town andCity Index’, citing it’s ‘diverse localbusiness base and low business costs’as a key factor. The town is also home toa number of major businesses includingBarclaycard, Carlsberg UK, TravisPerkins, Avon and Church’s Shoes.Recent and forthcoming majorinvestments by these organisations havesignalled their ongoing commitment tothe area. The town is extremely fortunate tohave significant development landavailable to accommodate its everincreasing demand for employment anda number of major sites have beenidentified to support the County’s targetof creating 70,000 jobs by 2031. It isanticipated that 35,000 of these will havebeen created by 2021. A series of major regenerationprojects are already under way, includingthe redevelopment of the town’s railwaystation, and the introduction of a cutting-edge innovation centre and the recentlyopened replacement bus interchange.With its unrivalled national andinternational transport links, the townhas been identified by Government as akey area for economic growth. And itsnew Waterside Enterprise Zone - thelargest enterprise zone in the countrywith 20 investment sites along the RiverNene - is already attracting globalinterest. The Enterprise Zone is animportant opportunity for businesses toexpand and flourish, joining the likes ofCarlsberg, which has just completed a£60 million programme ofredevelopment on the site for its newbottling plant.Up to 70 jobs are likely to be createdat the high performance engineeringcompany Cosworth, as work starts on itsnew factory in the Waterside EnterpriseZone. The company relocated fromLondon to Northampton some 50 yearsago and will see the construction of a38,000 sq ft production unit on the site –with completion expected before the endof the year. The facility will be used tomanufacture components and assemblesome of the world’s most advancedengines to global automotivemanufacturers. A new £330 million town centrecampus for The University ofNorthampton will bring together both ofits current sites to a 55-acre brownfieldsite at Nunn Mills Road, located in theNorthampton Waterside EnterpriseZone. The campus is expected to openin 2018 and will provide improvedfacilities, more opportunities to workwith commercial enterprises and helpboost the waterside area with newleisure, education and businessfacilities. It is believed that this projectwill be a catalyst for further developmentin the Enterprise Zone and the widerNorthampton area. The German owned logisticscompany Dachser has recently takenpossession of its new purpose-builtfacility at Brackmills, Northampton fromRoxhill. The company purchased the16.38 acre site last year, and has beendeveloping a freehold 64,000 sq ft cross-dock warehouse, a 114,000 sq ft contractlogistics warehouse and 21,000 sq ft ofoffice accommodation over twostoreys. Dachser has acquired thefacility for a new integrated logisticscentre.Carlsberg is also now planning toopen a new 640,000 sq ft distributionhub at Brackmills creating around 50new jobs. The development will sit on atriangular site adjoining Roxhill’sBrackmills Point scheme, south ofBedford Road. The plans, which will bealso be developed by Roxhill, will see afarm house demolished as well asassociated farm buildings and two semi-detached industrial properties. Thedevelopment is scheduled to start thissummer for completion in Spring 2015,with the aim to being fully operational inAutumn 2015.Prologis has bought a 19 acre site atGrange Park to undertake a 340,000 sq ftspeculative warehouse development.The site has been purchased from a jointventure between Evander Properties andthe British Airways Pension Fund foraround £10 million. Construction of theshed is expected to start shortly and will‘plug’ the gap for facilities of this sizearound Northampton and the wider EastNorthampton - the place for growthBy Richard Baker, director of Prop-Search COMMERCIAL PROPERTYwww.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 29Midlands region. Turning to retail activity, a number of centreshave changed ownership within the past sixmonths. DTZ Investment Management boughtthe freehold of British Land’s St James RetailPark for £53.25 million, reflecting a net initialyield of 6.1 per cent. The retail park, totalling164,229 sq ft, comprises 11 retail units. Tenantsinclude Next, Laura Ashley, Toys R Us, DFS,Brantano, DW Sports, Mothercare, BHS,Homesense, Boots and Starbucks. RedefineInternational has also purchased the WestonFavell Shopping Centre for £84 million fromAviva. The 307,763 sq ft is anchored by a156,987 sq ft Tesco Extra and has a totalof 56 retail units and seven kiosks.It is believed to produce a netrental income of £6.4 milliona yearLatest statistics show thatNorthampton is home tosome 13,000 businesses -the majority of which aresmall to medium sizedenterprises. The sectorscurrently being targeted forinvestment include high-performance engineering,low-carbon and sustainabletechnology, business andprofessional services andnew enterprise start-ups. Itis also making the UK’sfastest economic recovery,bucking the trend, withconfidence fordevelopment. SoNorthampton remains wellplaced attract more world-class brands and support itsgrowing population. Next >