4A.8A Creating Sympathetic Business Environments
Local governments compete to create sympathetic business environments with local plans designating areas for development for a range of domestic and foreign investors (Science Parks). (A: the actions of local authorities will affect their success)
Most planning decisions are made by local councils at local level. Councils draw up plans, called Unitary Development Plans, which identify:
- areas for new housing
- new roads and other major infrastructure
- areas for commercial development, i.e. factories, offices and retail
Such plans aim to create environments that are attractive to both people and businesses (UK-based or foreign investors) and therefore create a successful place. This means planning has to provide a range of spaces such as:
- retail parks and shopping centres
- business parks for office functions, and industrial parks for manufacturing and distribution
Increasingly a key goal is to attract high-value quaternary industry in fields such as ICT, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, nanotechnology, 3D printing and space research.
Science parks are a key planning mechanism to deliver this. They are industrial and business parks focussed on the quaternary industry and usually involve at least one university partner. There are over 100 science parks and business incubators (smaller sites, for start-up companies) in the UK, owned by TNCs, universities and local councils. Perhaps not surprisingly, most are in London, the South and South East.
NETPark (North East Technology Park) is a science park in Sedgefield, County Durham which is partnered by Durham University. Development, on a former hospital site, began in 2000 and the park now hosts 25 companies employing about 400 people. Other partners include Durham County Council, the UK Space Agency, Business Durham - the economic development agency for County Durham. Business Durham 'manages a portfolio of business property and excels in finding the right space for businesses to grow - commercial office space, modern laboratories and industrial property units' - in other words, its job is to attract domestic and foreign investment in County Durham.