7 minute read
Foreword
he ground-breaking enterprise behind one of them, Suffolk’s Integrated Care Academy, has attracted global attention because of the potential health benefits its research could reap. The result of a partnership between a university, a council and a range of healthcare organisations, the academy’s research lead, Age Care Technologies (ACT), has won the international Information Society Prize for Innovation in Healthy Ageing. Having seen off competition from 80 digi-tech companies located all over the world, including technologies backed by Amazon, ACT chief executive Prof. Ian Philp said his approach was driven by the three key challenges he saw in older people’s care worldwide.
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Meanwhile, plans to transform the former industrial area of east Norwich into a highly sustainable quarter have taken a step forward with the appointment of consultants. Great Yarmouth Borough Council has started providing free public wifi that is part and parcel of its £4.6m Market Place redevelopment. And over in Cambridgeshire, the Growth Works Fund has awarded 32 business grants which are expected to generate more than 300 jobs and capital expenditure in excess of £11m. Growth Fund chairman Nigel Parkinson said: “With the economy beginning to open up and businesses looking to the future with growing certainty, these grants are being awarded at a time when they will have the most impact.” A new cross-sector taskforce across in the Fens has, if anything, even greater ambition. Our cover feature this edition, the broad ranging Future Fens Integrated Adaptation project is designed to build resilience to the impact of climate change, stimulate housing growth and job creation, lead to the upgrade of transport links, improve biodiversity and support new opportunities for tourism. The project is described as radical and the first of its kind in the UK.
Helen Compson
Editor, East Anglia in Business
CONTENTS
issue 10
Foreword 03
Reflecting the many different forms investment can take, we turn our attention this issue to some of the exciting developments currently reshaping this dynamic region.
Environment 06|09
New plans to bring economic, environmental and social benefit across the Fens in UK first.
Sustainability 10|11
A new €4m cross-border project between England and France will help to improve how local areas mitigate and adapt to the threats of increased future water scarcity and drought in England and France.
Ecommerce and technology 12|13
Visitors to Great Yarmouth’s Market Place can now access free public wi-fi as part of the cross-Channel Go Trade project that’s helping to revitalise historic markets.
Training &
Development 16|17
It’s a question that is often contemplated: what will the future workplace look like by the time today’s primary school students get there? I’m a passionate believer and advocate for broadening our learning pathways and creating opportunities for all of us as “lifelong learners”.
News 18|19
Plans to transform the former industrial area of east Norwich into a highly sustainable quarter for the city have taken a step forward following the recent appointment of consultants, Avison Young.
Life Sciences 28|29
Age Care Technologies, the lead partner in research carried out by Suffolk’s Integrated Care Academy, has won the 2021 World Summit for the Information Society Prize for Innovation in Healthy Ageing.
Business Profile 22|23
Peterborough’s SME businesses believe there is a mixed outlook for firms in the region, but that trends demonstrate stronger performances than in 2020, according to a new report.
Renewable Energy
24|27
ScottishPower Renewables (SPR) has selected Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) as the preferred bidder to supply and install some of the world’s most powerful and productive offshore wind turbines for its £6.5 billion East Anglia Hub programme.
Commercial
Development 34|35
As part of ongoing investment in Felixstowe’s South Seafront, the development of a new iconic café is entering the final phase.
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New cross-sector taskforce will tackle climate resilience for local communities
An ambitious new multi-agency taskforce seeks to bring renewed prosperity to the Fens through a radical new approach to managing land and water resources. Future Fens Integrated Adaptation will deliver resilience to the impacts of climate change, unlock housing growth and job creation, allow for upgraded transport links, improve biodiversity and support new opportunities for tourism. The project is the first of its kind anywhere in the UK.
The initiative is a collaboration between Anglian Water, Water Resources East, the Environment Agency, and many regional partners. It will align multiple agencies and sectors to manage water resources holistically, unlocking a wealth of new opportunities for the area, which has historically been held back by its propensity to flood, given its position below sea level, and its poor transport connections.
By integrating flood management with securing water supply, water is treated as an asset to be valued rather than a problem to be got rid of.
More certainty in long term flood resilience along with a resilient water supply allow for social challenges to also be addressed, as investment can be made in things like better transport connectivity and much-needed housing in an area that currently suffers from significant underinvestment and deprivation. Protecting some of the UK’s best agricultural land by addressing future climate risks also allows for the introduction of higher value crops, creating jobs, training and employment opportunities. Key elements to the strategy which are already being taken forward include:
New multi-sector, multi-beneficiary reservoirs could provide additional water supply resilience for water companies, farmers and the food industry, and improve the water environment;
Exploring the flood resilience measures needed to support growth areas in the Fens, enabling key local infrastructure projects such as a rail connection from Wisbech to Cambridge and the dualling of the A47 to move forward;
Enhancement of open water channels for nature and biodiversity, tourism and navigation, as well as further water storage and flood risk management benefits;
Unlocking the full potential of the grade 1 agricultural land across the Fens would add billions of pounds to the local economy and benefit local people in terms of skills, jobs and new opportunities.
Wednesday’s taskforce launch, chaired by Anglian Water CEO Peter Simpson, drew together over 80 different stakeholders from 47 different organisations representing national and local government, agriculture, business, academia, energy and environmental sectors, all with the shared goal of driving forward progress in the Fens. The initiative has attracted cross-party support, with the launch addressed by the Rt Hon Steve Barclay MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury and MP for North East Cambridgeshire, who has contibuted long-standing support to the project. He was joined by the new Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Mayor, Dr Nik Johnson, as well as Environment Agency Chair Emma Howard Boyd. The Fens is the only specific region highlighted in the Environment Agency’s national flood risk strategy, and this initiative will be the centrepiece of Water Resources East’s regional plan for water management in the East of England, as well as forming a central part of Anglian Water’s Water Resources Management Plan.
Peter Simpson, CEO for Anglian Water said: “Businesses can and should make a positive difference to the communities they work within. This is why our purpose as a company goes far beyond the provision of safe, clean drinking water and water recycling services, to enhancing the environmental and social prosperity of the communities in our region. This is the ethos we embraced when we first began working in Wisbech in 2013.
“Since then, and with the help of other sectors and like-minded businesses, our ambition for this area has grown into something which we hope will be a global exemplar of how to take a place-based approach as we adapt to climate change. If we are
