Local leaders from the public and private sector have secured a £30 million cash boost for Sheffield City Region (which includes Chesterfield). This is in addition to £320m secured from Government last year, which will help the Local Enterprise Partnership to deliver its vision of creating 70,000 jobs over the next decade.

This top-up from Government makes Sheffield City Region’s total Growth Deal the fifth most substantial deal made with any City Region in England.

This extra funding will:

Enable the LEP to extend its highly successful business investment and support programme and create 4,400 new jobs for local people
Support a programme of investment in sustainable transport projects which could include cycle lanes, bus lanes, tram rail line replacement and other measures to make it easier and cheaper for people to get to work
Be invested in ready-to-go sites to help meet unmet demand from businesses wanting to set up quickly on Sheffield City Region Enterprise Zone
Support infrastructure work on the Midland Mainline which will mean faster journey times from Sheffield and Chesterfield to London.
Go towards building new training facilities, including plans for a Rail Engineering Campus in Doncaster
Councillor Sir Stephen Houghton CBE, Chairman of the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority, said:

“This Deal marks another milestone on our ‘devolution journey’ and builds on our recent Devolution Deal which transferred additional powers and policy levers from Government to our City Region’s decision makers.

“The Deal will need to be approved by Government after the General Election in May but we’re confident that this investment will be considered important by ministers of any political party as it is based on what our economy needs to grow.

James Newman, Chairman of the Sheffield City Region LEP, said:

“This is another step forward in ensuring that our City Region has the powers and funding that we need to grow our economy by growing local businesses and creating good jobs for local people.

“This important deal is the result of the excellent local partnerships in place across our City Region, particularly between the private sector led LEP Board and the Combined Authority. These strong local partnerships bring together local leaders from local government and from the private sector to make more effective local economic decisions.”

Government and D2N2 – the Local Enterprise Partnership for Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire – today agreed an additional investment package to further accelerate economic growth locally.

This brings total funding to a staggering £196.2m being awarded from the Government’s Local Growth Fund over six years.

David Ralph, Chief Executive of D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership, said:

“Local places know their areas best and the expansion of the Growth Deals further demonstrate Government’s commitment to working with local areas and is a continuation of the changing relationship of devolved funding.

“We are continuing to develop the D2N2 economy as nationally recognised excellence in skills development and innovation in key economic sectors such as planes, trains and automobiles, life sciences and the low carbon economy. The expanded Growth Deal helps deliver that aspiration, and will help inspire our business base to work collaboratively to deliver the new jobs, in the right place, at the right scale.”

Peter Richardson, Chairman of D2N2, said: “We are absolutely committed to positioning this area to compete in the global economy and secure our goal of helping create 55,000 private sector jobs by 2023. The £22m in our expanded Growth Deal will help secure a strong, sustainable and increasingly resilient economy in D2N2, the UK’s most inspirational postcode.”

Over £20 million in extra spending has been generated and 381 jobs created locally since Visit Peak District & Derbyshire launched its latest major marketing push, ‘The World Away’ – worth £600,000 over three years.

And almost half the people surveyed said that successive broadcast, online and print promotions since 2012 had made them more likely to consider the area for a holiday or short break.

Research carried out on behalf of national tourist board VisitEngland reveals that the upsurge in interest in the Peak District and Derbyshire has been achieved thanks to Visit Peak District & Derbyshire’s share in a £19.8 million pot of money from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund (RGF).

Marketing activity in previous years has included a £150,000 multi-media campaign, including the Peak District and Derbyshire’s first-ever television commercial, screened in ITV’s Anglia and Central (East and West) regions and available on Video on Demand (VOD).

This year promotion is focusing on VOD in the ITV Granada and Central West regions until the end of March and paid advertising on Facebook and YouTube, backed by 250,000 A5 leaflets funded by D2N2, The Local Enterprise Partnership for Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, to reach specific audiences across Birmingham and Greater Manchester.

Website activity also includes The World Away Giveaway – a competition worth more than £2,000 hosted at www.visitpeakdistrict.com/win including many great prizes such as family silver membership for two adults and three children at Chatsworth.

And businesses across the area and beyond are being urged to make the campaign even more successful by sharing Visit Peak District & Derbyshire’s multi-platform content on their websites and social media.

“We are delighted that our involvement in ‘Growing Tourism Locally’ is paying such high dividends for the Peak District and Derbyshire,” said Jo Dilley, Destination Management Organisation (DMO) Director.

“The message is that the Peak District and Derbyshire is affordable, accessible and open all year – and the tourism industry, both locally and further afield, can make our efforts even more successful by sharing our content across a number of digital platforms.

“Looking ahead, we hope to build on the success we have achieved since 2012 by securing a share in the £10 million ‘Northern Futures’ campaign, unveiled by the Government last year – designed to lure tourists out of London to enjoy the North’s stunning countryside, history and culture and due to be launched this spring.”