Leicester and Loughborough Enterprise Zone confirmed

Plans for a new Enterprise Zone to support the UK’s space science industry have been confirmed. The project will cover three sites across Leicester and Loughborough, and aims to deliver 6,500 new jobs by building on the local area’s expertise in the sector.

Leicester is already home to the National Space Centre and the new Zone will offer specialist research and development facilities to bring innovative ideas and products to market.

New and expanded businesses located there are set to benefit from business rate reliefs worth tens of thousands of pounds each year, an incentive that should pull more investment into the region and boost the local economy.

The new Enterprise Zone will cover 160 hectares at Loughborough Science and Energy Park, Charnwood Campus and Leicester Waterside and it forms part of the Government’s efforts to create an economy that works for everyone in all parts of the country.

Nick Pulley, Chair of the Leicester and Loughborough Enterprise Partnership, comments: “Confirmation of this second Enterprise Zone will make Leicester and Leicestershire extremely attractive to science, innovation and hi-tech manufacturing companies looking for research facilities and industrial and office space to base and expand their businesses.

“We have already seen this model working brilliantly at MIRA Technology Park in the automotive sector and we will look to replicate this in the science, innovation and hi-tech manufacturing sectors.”