Tax
relief on multi-million pound investments will be available to Black Country
companies after the area’s enterprise zone was selected by government to
receive capital allowances.
Business leaders at the Black Country Local
Enterprise Partnership, which submitted the bid for the enterprise zone, have
welcomed the announcement, which was made in yesterday’s (WED) autumn statement
from the chancellor.
The Black Country, Humber, Liverpool, North Eastern,
Sheffield, and Tees Valley Enterprise Zones were all singled out to receive 100
per cent capital allowances due to their strong focus on high value manufacturing.
The capital
allowances will enable companies on the enterprise zone to receive tax relief
for plant and machinery investment incurred between April 2012 and March 2017.
The Black Country enterprise zone will have capital allowances of up to £300 million
over the three sites involved in the zone, with a threshold of £100 million
allocated to each site.
All
enterprise zones across the country will also benefit from discounts on
business rates, new superfast broadband and increased planning certainty.
The
Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) approved the location of
the Black Country Enterprise Zone back in August and the Black Country zone is
one of 21 planned for the country.
The
proposal for the Black Country zone led by the Black Country Local Enterprise
Partnership, comprises a portfolio of sites situated in Darlaston and i54 -
Wolverhampton North, spread over 120 hectares.
The
zone expects to create almost 4,000 net new jobs by 2015 in advanced
manufacturing and environmental technologies including aerospace, automotive
and engineering.
The
i54 site is by far the most significant greenfield business site in the
sub-region and is widely recognised to be exceptionally attractive for the
sectors the Black Country is targeting for growth in high quality employment.
The cluster of sites adjacent to i54 Wolverhampton North comprises the
remaining development land and vacant buildings in the Wolverhampton Business
Park, the surplus HS Marston land, City Gate, Lupus and the Gateway.
Overall, this area provides the potential to generate several thousand
different types of skilled and semi-skilled jobs in key high technology sectors
supplying the high end manufacturing companies we seek to attract onto i54.
Darlaston is a cluster of sites either side of
the M6, providing some 40 hectares of (net) developable land. Darlaston offers
an important strategic opportunity and is a signal of change for private sector
led job growth. The development sites at Darlaston provide a custom and
practice supply chain locality for just in time delivery of critical but
engineering intensive components for the advanced engineering sector.