Southend has seen the biggest percentage increase in the number of businesses per 10,000 population, according to a new study.

Cities Outlook is an annual economic index of the UK’s largest cities and town, produced by the influential Centre for Cities think-tank. The publication ranks the economic performance of 64 UK cities and towns on a number of indicators: including public and private sector employment trends, skills geography, earnings, and concentration of jobs in growth sectors.

Southend (which includes Southend, Rochford and Castle Point local authority areas in the survey) has performed strongly in a number of important areas:

• The number of businesses per 10,000 population in 2012 was 345.8, an increase of 1.7% on 2011. London’s percentage increase was 1.2%
• There were 45.7 business start-ups per 10,000 population in 2012, the 8th best in the UK
• It ranks in the top 10 for average weekly earnings - £523
• House prices rose on average 3.2% last year to £224,200 – the 10th biggest rise in the UK
• CO2 were the 5th lowest in the UK, at 4.3t per capita
• There has been a 20% increase in Super Fast Broadband coverage across Southend

There is, however, much room for improvement in higher education. According to the study, only 20.2% of people across Southend, Rochford and Castle Point have “high qualifications” of NVQ4 or above.

You can download a PDF of the full report here.

Please send us your comments on the findings at contact@southendrising.com

From Property Week

Valad Europe has bought the Royals Shopping Centre in Southend from Orchard Street Investment Management for around £33.4m.

The price for the 285,000 sq ft centre reflects a net initial yield of 8.45%. It has four anchor stores, 23 shops and a 450-space car park.  It has a gross annual rental income of £3m and is anchored by Debenhams for a further 72 years and also includes tenants such as Boots, Primark and TK Maxx.  There is an average unexpired lease term to break of around 26 years.

The purchase is being made by Valad’s new £375m European Diversified Fund which launched in October with £150m of equity and is targeting core plus and value add assets across the office, retail and industrial sectors of between £5m and £20m in the UK and Germany.

The Royals was originally put up for sale as part of a £120m portfolio in May last year through Morgan Williams and Griffiths Eccles, which also included Market Walk Shopping Centre in Chorley, St David’s Retail Park in Bangor, Mallard Road Retail Park in Bournemouth and The Meadows Retail Park in Chelmsford.

However, the portfolio – which is held in the Orchard Street UK Special Situations Fund I - did not sell in its entirety and the Royals was put up for sale in October through Knight Frank. The five centres were then refinanced with a £69m loan from Royal Bank of Scotland in November, with an existing facility with the bank due to have expired at the end of the year.

David Kirkby, Valad Europe’s chief investment officer, said:

 “We launched VEDF to take advantage of an anticipated narrowing of prime-secondary spreads both in the UK and Germany over the course of the Fund’s life. This acquisition follows the recent purchases in the UK of three office assets at Wexham Springs and a Wickes retail warehouse in Aintree.

“In addition, we have a strong pipeline of deals with over £50m in solicitors’ hands in the UK and Germany and we are actively seeking additional suitable acquisitions in these markets. The fund’s initial acquisitions in the UK are typical of the type of office and retail assets we are targeting, while in Germany we are looking for offices in the top and second tier cities, selected retail assets and nationwide distribution warehouses.”

Find out the latest 2014 financial news for your firm at a special business briefing on Wednesday 22nd January.

The free event - which will unveil Southend-on-Sea Borough Council’s forthcoming spending plans, and give details of support for local companies - starts at 8am at the Maritime Rooms at the Cliffs Pavilion, Station Road, Westcliff

Speakers include Councillor Nigel Holdcroft, Leader of Southend-on-Sea Borough Council, Rob Tinlin, the Council’s Chief Executive and Joe Chesterton, Head of Finances and Resources who will be presenting the Council’s 2014-15 budget.

This will be a chance to discover directly from Council chiefs how decisions and processes will impact on your business, and to discuss business rates.

Tim Walter, Business Development and Marketing Consultant for the Anglia Ruskin Medtech Campus, will also be speaking about the MedTech Campus business services and the £5.24million European Regional Development Fund business support project.

Delegates can put their questions to Councillor Nigel Holdcroft, Leader of Southend-on-Sea Borough Council, and the rest of the panel during the Q & A session.

There will also be an opportunity to meet representatives of a range of financial and funding organisations face to face, to understand what sources of finance are available to you and your business.

This includes grants available through local programmes and well as more conventional lenders.

If you would like to pre-book a one to one session with a particular funder then please email economicd@southend.gov.uk.

The organisations attending this briefing are:

MedTech Low Carbon - This is an innovation project, funded by the European Regional Development Fund providing specialised support services and grant funding to small and medium-sized enterprises in the medical technologies sector and its supply chain. You can be part of the £5.24 million scheme. Visit the team to see if you qualify for a package of free support and even a cash grant to take your business idea further, faster.

Low Carbon Business - This programme has been extended and is aimed at small and medium sized enterprises, identifying cost and carbon savings available from improved energy efficiency. Many businesses in Southend are already reaping its rewards, so why don’t you too?

Business Rates Team - The non-domestic rates are collected by the local authority and are the way businesses and others who occupy non-domestic property contribute towards local services. The team can help with any questions and give details of schemes available to you and your business.

Enterprise and Community Team - Southend-on-Sea Borough Council has been awarded £1.8million for local business support packages. For more information speak to the team.

Low Carbon KEEP Programme - This programme supports East of England businesses to innovate and grow through University partnerships and knowledge transfer. Despite spending cuts, funding for Low Carbon KEEP projects is still available until the end of April 2015.

Examplas - Exemplas are looking for growth potential limited companies to invest in. The COIN Fund could offer co-investment capital to help attract the full investment you need. The fund is designed for companies with a viable business plan looking for investment capital to finance their growth plans.

Foundation East - Foundation East is an Industrial and Provident Society, recognised by HM Revenue and Customs as an exempt charity. Foundation East does not use a credit scoring system as business is about people as well as numbers. Instead, applicants must be able to provide a strong business case for the loan, supported by necessary documentation and financial details.

Banking organisations represented at the event will be Nat West, Barclays, HSBC, Santander and Lloyds Banking

The meeting will start promptly at 08.30am, with refreshments and registration available from 8am.

To book your free place, please contact economicd@southend.gov.uk.

If you are unable to attend the meeting and you have booked a place, then please let the team know as soon as possible via the same email address.

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council’s deputy leader, Councillor John Lamb said: "This event is a golden opportunity for companies to get absolutely up to date with funding opportunities and developments here in Southend.

"We hope as many as possible will come and take advantage of the chance to find out the very latest information and how best to develop their businesses."

At its meeting on Tuesday 21st January the Cabinet will consider Southend-on-Sea Borough Council’s draft budget for 2014/15.

This is the ninth year in a row that the Council has had to make incredibly tough decisions and deliver significant savings to enable it to balance its books. The budget proposals for 2014/15 recommend £7.3m in efficiencies, achieved by continuing to renegotiate existing contracts, redesign services, reorganisation of teams and rationalising systems.

This has all been done in the face of extremely challenging financial conditions including significant ongoing reductions in Government Grants - a decrease of £7.6m (9.8%) in 2014/15 and another £9.8m (14.1%) for 2015/16.

Despite these major pressures, the authority has done everything possible to minimise the impact on essential front line services.

To ease the burden on residents, the Cabinet is once again recommending that Council tax for Southend - already one of the lowest in the country - should not be increased in 2014/15.

This would be assisted by accepting the offer of a Government grant to assist in meeting the shortfall incurred by freezing the tax.

Also, to help boost local businesses and encourage visitors to our shopping and tourist areas, car parking charges will be frozen across the borough for the fifth time out of the last six years.

As well as freezing the majority of other fees and charges, the Cabinet is also proposing to freeze all leisure charges to help residents to keep using these popular facilities.  

If the Council approves these budget proposals then it will have saved £79m over the last nine years.

For the forthcoming financial year the Council has had to identify savings across its five spending areas, these include:

• Department for People - £4.468m
• Department for Place - £951,000
• Department for Corporate Services - £905,000
• Corporate Services - £95,000

A further £900,000 efficiency savings have been achieved through a range of cross-cutting reductions, including transport, highways, IT systems and social care. A significant saving of £4.5m for 2014/15 will be made within the merged new Department for People. This is from service reviews, reorganisation of teams, contract rationalisation, as well as new and additional income generation.

Out of this saving, more than £300,000 of efficiencies will be made as new administration and business support services are put in place following the integration of the Children and Learning and Adult and Community Services.

This combined department has already become more efficient in coordinating better outcomes for vulnerable people and families, and in effectively commissioning and procuring services.

In the Department for Place, a £150,000 saving has been made by renegotiating the contract for leisure centre management which includes the Council's four leisure centres, Belfairs, Chase, Shoebury and Southend Leisure and Tennis Centre, which includes Swimming and Diving Centre.

A further £126,000 of savings will be realised following the Library Services review, as a new team structure is put in place. £710,000 is also being budgeted to deliver improvements to branch networks, as well developing a new library in Delaware Road, Shoeburyness, as outlined in the review.

The Department for Corporate Services has saved £130,000 by incorporating South Essex Homes Customer Contact staff into the Council's own Customer Services Centre, streamlining senior management across both services, ensuring a single, more coordinated approach for residents.

A further £10,000 will be saved following a review of the Cabinet, reducing the Portfolio Holders from eight to seven. Details of this proposal will be decided following the local election in May.

But the need to make such significant savings to be able to present a balanced budget will inevitably lead to some job losses at the authority.

A total of 49.5 Full Time Equivalent posts have been identified as being at risk, of which 26 are currently occupied. Employees in the affected areas and the trade unions have been fully briefed.

As in previous years, possible redeployment opportunities for individuals are already being highlighted within the Council's successful Talent Pool system, which will again help to keep the number of compulsory redundancies to an absolute minimum.

The Council is pushing forward with a £60m Capital Programme, which is supported by the judicious use of reserves, to deliver improved facilities and boost growth locally over a four year period. These include:

• £12.2m investment in early years provision, including expanding primary school places at Hamstel and Darlinghurst, as well as building a new primary school to accommodate the growing need for primary school places
• Investing £10m into developing the Airport Business Park, to create significant long term job opportunities and boost economic growth. This will continue to support recent investment into London Southend Airport
• £8m to preserve the improvement of Victoria Avenue, including redevelopment
• £8m of investment in the Council's Decent Homes Programme, to help ensure that its social housing stock is maintained at the highest standards so that residents' homes are comfortable, warm and modern
• £6.720m of highway improvements across the town reducing the potential for potholes to occur as well as £3.2m to support the A127 Tesco Junction improvements
• A £2.5m invest to save programme to replace all street lights with more energy efficient and sustainable LED technology, which will help save money for future budgets
• Significant investment of more than £710,000 in our branch libraries to further improve accessibility, including improved wi-fi services, as well as developing a new library in Shoeburyness.

Councillor Nigel Holdcroft, Leader of the Council, said: "These financial decisions are becoming harder and harder to make, as the challenges of austerity measures bite ever deeper and the levels of Government funding reduce. "We are constantly trying to balance the needs of the most vulnerable whilst doing everything we can to preserve essential services - where we have a growing demand.

"This is the ninth year running where we have had to deliver significant savings. If this budget is approved, we will have achieved a total of £79 million savings during those nine years - the equivalent of a 129.6 per cent Council Tax hike.

"We have been able to safeguard core front line services by reviewing and reassessing how these are delivered.

"Where necessary we have redesigned our approach to ensure that these services remain cutting edge and receptive to the needs of residents while being financially sustainable.

"To help our residents and businesses during these tough financial times, we are freezing Council tax for the third time in four years, as well as freezing parking charges, and leisure charges.

"Another way to help us balance the books has been to find further income streams. Due to the significant reduction in our financial support from Government we have to make sure we do not depend on just one source of revenue.

"With our partners, particularly in health, we have identified opportunities to help improve services further.

"Despite the major financial challenges, the Council continues to make its mark nationally and is achieving much through its successful, ongoing partnership working.

"In September the Forum Southend-on-Sea opened in Elmer Square. This is the first tri-partnership project of its kind in the country between the Council, the University of Essex and South Essex College, offering a unique library and learning hub.

"We are looking to the long term by investing in the economy - in jobs and careers in Southend. This will reinforce the opportunities offered as a result of Southend being chosen by the Government as a City Deal area.

"We want to continue to provide aspirations and careers here in Southend, as well as helping to address disadvantage and low household incomes in the borough.

"The Council and its partners have been designated a health and social care pioneer, and the Council has also been shortlisted to be one of the groundbreaking Big Lottery early years pioneers.

"Our good housekeeping over the last few years has allowed us to set aside reserves. Four years into the current austerity budgeting we have decided to use a prudent element of our reserves to address issues which are key to the borough's future prosperity.

"These are specifically for issues such as School Improvement - to recruit advisers for early years, for secondary education and a pool resource for executive and deputy executive head teachers - and for Economic Development, to recruit dedicated officers and fund linked projects.

"The economic conditions are now right to stimulate further economic activity and regeneration as well as addressing specific service concerns where some additional investment can make a significant and long term difference.

"Some of this investment will be recouped over the medium term - such as in the Airport Business Park and regenerating Victoria Avenue, and some is also supported by grant income.

"We have achieved a developmental budget in austere times.

"It cushions households from financial pressures, while at the same time, we are spending money on issues our residents raise particular concerns about - such as continuing to improve roads, pavements, street lighting, investing in our childrens' futures through improving schools.

"There is a continual drive for efficiencies and a continuing success in levering funds into the town - often through competition - from the Government and other agencies.

"Despite these difficult times, the Council continues to gain prestigious recognition for its sustained high level performance. More than 30 teams across the organisation have either won or been shortlisted for a host of different national awards in the last 12 months."

From the Echo: January 10, 2014

PLANS for a huge business park near Southend Airport, creating thousands of jobs, are set to be go ahead within the next three to four
years.

Southend Council has pledged its ambitious plans to create Saxon business park, off Cherry Orchard Way, will happen.

The aim is for the new business park to attract high-tech companies to move into the area and be a catalyst for businesses wishing to expand and employ more people.

John Lamb, deputy leader of Southend Council, said: “We’re keen for all these businesses to come together as a nucleus, high-tech business park. At the heart of it will be Anglia Ruskin University’s MedTech campus. Ipeco, a company in Aviation Way which designs, manufactures and tests products for the aerospace and defence industries, are also keen to expand and bring in more people.

“The whole site will create a few thousand jobs Things have been progressing in the background for years and are still moving forward. We are waiting to get the permission from the Government.”

The land is council owned and green fields at present, but has been earmarked for employment use with access from Cherry Orchard Way. It falls in the borough of Rochford District Council, which has backed the proposal. 
 
Westcliff Rugby Club falls within the earmarked site and the council would look to reallocate land for the club to use, as well as creating a public park.

The investment needed will run into the millions. Most of it will come from private investment with the university, and there will be Government money available.

Mr Lamb said: “It can’t progress as quickly as we would like because there are a lot of processes to go through first, but I believe the site clearance and drainage and utilities work could start within 18 months to two years. It’s an exciting time. It will all come off – it’s just about timing. It’s a prime site for the hi-tech companies we’re talking about.”

The next step is to set out a blueprint to smooth the way for future planning applications from private firms, by setting out what would be acceptable and what would not. The aim is to bring in multinational companies, as well as helping start-ups and small enterprises.

Employment opportunities will be available for local people and Mr Lamb encouraged those with the right qualifications to stay up to date.

He added: “Local people are, of course, likely to apply for the jobs and suppliers are likely come from the local area, so it will be a huge economic boost.”

The benefits were echoed by Anglia Ruskin University MedTech Campus director, Anita Thornberry.

Mrs Thornberry, who used to work at the council as head of economy, regeneration and tourism, said: “At Southend we are looking at 3,000 to 4,000 jobs, and it could be more. There will also be indirect benefits with support services used locally.

“There will be regenerative benefits to the town centre and job creation through the actual building. The knock-on economic impact is quite
significant.

“Southend is a great fit. There is already a strong medical technology sector with Olympus KeyMed and Surgical Holdings, who have chosen to be in Southend, and the hospital is a strong innovator.

 “The location is ideal, right by the airport and situated between London and Cambridge, with two train lines to the capital.”

 The Southend business park is one of three sites the university is aiming to develop as part of an investment worth half a billion pounds.

The other sites are in Harlow and Chelmsford. The campus will research and produce medical devices and products which can help assisted living for elderly and vulnerable people.

Commuters looking to save money by moving out of London will gain the most if they choose Southend, new figures show.

The average price of a house in Southend is less than half that in London. After taking into account the cost of an annual season ticket – which averages £3,236 - commuters can save themselves more than £8,600 a year by living on the Essex coast.

The research by estate agency Haart, however, suggested that commuters moving to Oxford or Cambridge would find the cost of a season ticket more than outweighs the benefits of cheaper housing.

The analysis of 14 commuter hotspots suggests that, on average, people save £10,779 a year by moving out of London, but then spend £5,160 a year on train fares.

See the table below for a detailed breakdown of commuter costs.

From the Echo: January 3, 2014

SOUTHEND Council is considering sinking £10million into a new airport business park which could create thousands of jobs.

The council’s cabinet is to consider making the investment next week, as part of its plans for the period 2015-2018.

The site for the new business park is on Southend Council owned land to the north of Aviation Way, which lies just inside the Rochford district.

Papers released this week (see PDF at the end of this article) ahead of the cabinet meeting show plans for a medical technology centre at the heart of the site, which on its own, could create 4,000 jobs.

The documents say the council would like to borrow £10million to invest in groundworks on the site, starting in 2015- 2018.

It is also looking at allowing a solar energy farm on land to the north of the business park as a way of recouping some of its costs.

Andrew Moring, Tory councillor responsible for corporate services, said: “We own quite a lot of land there and some of it is green belt so we thought, ‘what can we do with that?’ “We could possibly make it a solar farm, although we haven’t gone through the details of it yet.”

He added: “The £10million will be for the initial infrastructure – utilities and roads – although this is provisional, as it would still have to be approved in the annual budgets each year.”

The plan would also hinge on Rochford Council giving planning permission, and on a separate agreement between the two councils to be known as a joint area action plan.

Mr Moring added: “This would be very good news for the town, in particular for the jobs it would provide for people.”

Martin Terry, opposition independent group spokesman, said his colleagues supported the project in principle, but had “major concerns about the level of borrowing” involved.

He added: “Eventually, it would have to be paid for from cuts to frontline services. I think it should look at the level of its reserves and how its investments are managed first.”

Click the link below to download a PDF of the full report.