News: Rotherham in line for massive jobs boost as part of Don Valley Corridor regeneration scheme
Key areas in Rotherham and Sheffield are at the heart of a flagship place-based regeneration programme for South Yorkshire that will enable over 18,000 jobs and 10,500 new homes through coordinated development.
The Don Valley Corridor will create a unified corridor for innovation, industry and neighbourhood renewal stretching from Sheffield city centre to the site of the proposed Rotherham Gateway Station.
It brings together the UK’s largest concentration of industrial research and production capability outside the South East, anchored by The University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), Translational Energy Research Centre, Olympic Legacy Park and major firms including Rolls-Royce, Boeing, McLaren and ITM Power.
Proponents say that: "By unlocking brownfield sites and investing in transport, energy and flood resilience infrastructure, the Don Valley Corridor will drive inclusive, sustainable, long-term regional growth."
The corridor between Sheffield and Rotherham has always been recognised as operating as one economy but the new programme will place the Don Valley as one of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority's (SYMCA's) regional growth areas for investment.
That priority is set to be increased with the proposed designation of the region's first Mayoral Development Zone (MDZ) for the Don Valley Corridor.
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A SYMCA paper explains: "A Mayoral Development Zone is a non-statutory entity. It differs from a Mayoral Development Corporation which is a Statutory entity with special powers which needs to follow a specific legal process to designate.
"Under these arrangements the MCA will use its existing statutory powers, in particular, its strategic economic development powers and regeneration powers, its own resources and relationships with government, infrastructure providers and the private sector, as part of an integrated place-based programme. This will provide confidence both to the market, government and the wider public sector.
"Mayoral Development Zone is a designation signalling to Government, investors, and partners that an area is a strategic priority for coordinated long-term regeneration. It maintains strategic focus and partnership commitment, strengthens Government engagement, signals readiness to explore enhanced delivery powers if required, and preserves optionality on future statutory mechanisms. This designation responds to specific challenges within the Don Valley Corridor by bringing spatial coherence across a large and complex geography."
Partners have discounted the creation of a Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC), which would have planning authority powers to acquire land, cut red tape, and accelerate high-quality housing and business. The report warns that a MDC would need a costly and rigid structure, potentially slowing progress.
Instead, a MDZ and the programme "adds strategic capacity, investment readiness and cross-boundary alignment so that separate initiatives can be sequenced and leveraged for greater impact."
Bringing together SYMCA with Rotherham Council and Sheffield Council "creates a single front door for Government, agencies and private markets" with governance and the authority's assurance framework in place. The paper adds that "there is shared commitment between SYMCA, RMBC and SCC to resource the
programme collectively as a shared endeavour, including programme development capacity."
External funding is set to come from gainshare and other devolved funding pots, including funds that support renewal, housing and infrastructure. Nationally, the programme will be positioned to engage with institutions such as Homes England and the National Wealth Fund.
The Government has this week committed to providing the South Yorkshire Mayor with access to "£85m new money to support jobs and development, including in the Don Valley Corridor and Sheffield Innovation spine."
Oliver Coppard, Mayor of South Yorkshire said: "We’re building a bigger and better economy across all of South Yorkshire, creating the opportunities that allow people to stay near and go far.
"For too long, South Yorkshire and the wider North have been failed, not only a by a lack of investment in our people, our businesses, our ideas and our infrastructure, but by a lack of ambition itself.
"But slowly, surely we’re beginning to see the South Yorkshire of the future taking shape - with world leading companies in industries of the future investing here, real income growth, and huge plans for the future, we’re starting to see the full potential of every part of Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster and Sheffield.
"The UK cannot realise its own economic renewal without places like South Yorkshire playing our full part, but together with this Government we are now making that happen."
Don Valley Corridor aligns with the South Yorkshire Investment Zone which includes Rotherham sites such as the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) at Waverley, parts of Brinsworth and Canklow, the remaining regeneration sites at Templeborough, the Meadowbank Road area along with Holmes and Masbrough, the whole of Rotherham town centre, the Greasbrough Road area, Eastwood, Barbot Hall Industrial Estate, areas of Parkgate (but not the existing retail parks or adjacent land), and land at Aldwarke (but not the existing steel works).
The Mayoral Combined Authority Board is set discuss the Don Valley Corridor next week.
SYMCA website
Images: Harworth Group / SYMCA
The Don Valley Corridor will create a unified corridor for innovation, industry and neighbourhood renewal stretching from Sheffield city centre to the site of the proposed Rotherham Gateway Station.
It brings together the UK’s largest concentration of industrial research and production capability outside the South East, anchored by The University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), Translational Energy Research Centre, Olympic Legacy Park and major firms including Rolls-Royce, Boeing, McLaren and ITM Power.
Proponents say that: "By unlocking brownfield sites and investing in transport, energy and flood resilience infrastructure, the Don Valley Corridor will drive inclusive, sustainable, long-term regional growth."
The corridor between Sheffield and Rotherham has always been recognised as operating as one economy but the new programme will place the Don Valley as one of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority's (SYMCA's) regional growth areas for investment.
That priority is set to be increased with the proposed designation of the region's first Mayoral Development Zone (MDZ) for the Don Valley Corridor.
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A SYMCA paper explains: "A Mayoral Development Zone is a non-statutory entity. It differs from a Mayoral Development Corporation which is a Statutory entity with special powers which needs to follow a specific legal process to designate.
"Under these arrangements the MCA will use its existing statutory powers, in particular, its strategic economic development powers and regeneration powers, its own resources and relationships with government, infrastructure providers and the private sector, as part of an integrated place-based programme. This will provide confidence both to the market, government and the wider public sector.
"Mayoral Development Zone is a designation signalling to Government, investors, and partners that an area is a strategic priority for coordinated long-term regeneration. It maintains strategic focus and partnership commitment, strengthens Government engagement, signals readiness to explore enhanced delivery powers if required, and preserves optionality on future statutory mechanisms. This designation responds to specific challenges within the Don Valley Corridor by bringing spatial coherence across a large and complex geography."
Partners have discounted the creation of a Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC), which would have planning authority powers to acquire land, cut red tape, and accelerate high-quality housing and business. The report warns that a MDC would need a costly and rigid structure, potentially slowing progress.
Instead, a MDZ and the programme "adds strategic capacity, investment readiness and cross-boundary alignment so that separate initiatives can be sequenced and leveraged for greater impact."
External funding is set to come from gainshare and other devolved funding pots, including funds that support renewal, housing and infrastructure. Nationally, the programme will be positioned to engage with institutions such as Homes England and the National Wealth Fund.
The Government has this week committed to providing the South Yorkshire Mayor with access to "£85m new money to support jobs and development, including in the Don Valley Corridor and Sheffield Innovation spine."
Oliver Coppard, Mayor of South Yorkshire said: "We’re building a bigger and better economy across all of South Yorkshire, creating the opportunities that allow people to stay near and go far.
"For too long, South Yorkshire and the wider North have been failed, not only a by a lack of investment in our people, our businesses, our ideas and our infrastructure, but by a lack of ambition itself.
"But slowly, surely we’re beginning to see the South Yorkshire of the future taking shape - with world leading companies in industries of the future investing here, real income growth, and huge plans for the future, we’re starting to see the full potential of every part of Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster and Sheffield.
"The UK cannot realise its own economic renewal without places like South Yorkshire playing our full part, but together with this Government we are now making that happen."
Don Valley Corridor aligns with the South Yorkshire Investment Zone which includes Rotherham sites such as the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) at Waverley, parts of Brinsworth and Canklow, the remaining regeneration sites at Templeborough, the Meadowbank Road area along with Holmes and Masbrough, the whole of Rotherham town centre, the Greasbrough Road area, Eastwood, Barbot Hall Industrial Estate, areas of Parkgate (but not the existing retail parks or adjacent land), and land at Aldwarke (but not the existing steel works).
The Mayoral Combined Authority Board is set discuss the Don Valley Corridor next week.
SYMCA website
Images: Harworth Group / SYMCA
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