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Business Enterprise Centre Project

New Enterprise Centre for Oswestry

Advantage West Midlands has approved funding of up to £5.9million towards a project that will provide a major boost to the economies of Shropshire and Herefordshire by creating the facilities for significant numbers of jobs and supporting enterprising small and medium sized businesses.

The Rural Regeneration Zone Enterprise Centre Network is a groundbreaking project involving the Rural Regeneration Zone, Advantage West Midlands, Local Authority partners and leading private sector flexible workspace provider Evans Easyspace Ltd.

The Rural Regeneration Zone and Evans Easyspace will work with local partners to develop and manage the Enterprise Centre Network across 'hub' sites at Rotherwas in Hereford and Battlefields in Shrewsbury and 'spoke' sites at Leominster, Ross-on-Wye, Ludlow, Bridgnorth, Oswestry and Market Drayton.
Hub sites will be around 25,000 sq ft and will accommodate both office and workshop units and Spokes will be around 10,000-20,000 sq ft, also providing similar units.

All centres will have flexible 'easy-in, easy-out' terms and rents that are inclusive of service charge, landlord's insurance and legal costs, together with a range of additional business support services.

The first centres to be developed, with work beginning on site in Spring 2007, will be Rotherwas, Shrewsbury, Ludlow and Leominster. Oswestry, Ross-On-Wye, Bridgnorth and Market Drayton will follow later in 2007 and 2008.

Peter Pawsey, Chair of the Rural Regeneration Zone said: "The Rural Regeneration Zone has a key role to play in improving the economic conditions of the West Midlands and this project will help achieve this aim through fostering an enterprise culture and providing the right conditions for start up and grow-on businesses to prosper."

"The Enterprise Centre Network project is a fantastic example of the public and private sector working together to deliver an innovative project which has been developed in direct response to the needs of our rural business community. The project will deliver a consistent level of high quality premises for young businesses and the Zone-wide approach will also achieve economies of scale."

Tom Stokes, Managing Director of Evans Easyspace said: "The importance of encouraging the growth of new businesses in areas of regeneration cannot be underestimated, as they often utilise local skills and knowledge which helps build sustainable communities. This initiative is very exciting as it will offer much needed premises and support services which will help these business realise their full potential, in turn adding to the economic strength and diversity of the region."

Updates will follow on this page.