Don Valley Corridor plan to bring thousands of new jobs and homes to Sheffield and Rotherham
The Don Valley Corridor is set to produce 18,500 new jobs and more than 10,500 new homes.
Sheffield, Rotherham and South Yorkshire political and business leaders have united to welcome a £1.3bn boost to the region that promises thousands of new jobs and homes.
The Don Valley Corridor is set to produce 18,500 new jobs and more than 10,500 new homes. The investment was announced today (March 25) at the luxury car manufacturer McLaren’s Composites Technology Centre (MCTC) in the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Catcliffe, Rotherham.
South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard, Sheffield City Council leader Coun Tom Hunt and Rotherham Council leader Coun Chris Read unveiled the project, which has been nine years in the making.
Other speakers at the event included Boeing UK president Sir Sir Jeremy Quin. Boeing has its only European manufacturing facility at the Advanced Manufacturing Park and has close research links to the University of Sheffield.
The Don Valley Corridor is envisaged to stretch from Sheffield through Attercliffe, Tinsley and Templeborough into Rotherham Gateway, the town centre and Bassingthorpe.
The council leaders stressed that the corridor represents a 30-year plan that aims to rebuild pride and create new communities in an area that once was home to heavy industry, steelmaking and mining.
Mayor Coppard pointed out that the Advanced Manufacturing Park stands on what was once the Orgreave Coking Plant, the site of the Battle of Orgreave during the miners’ strike in 1984-85.
The announcement follows fast on the heels of the deal to keep World Snooker at the Crucible in Sheffield, the launch of the South Yorkshire People’s Public Transport network and the government investment in electric buses.
Mayor Coppard said: “This is our big growth corridor for this bit of South Yorkshire. It means 18,000 more jobs. It means 10,000 more homes.
“It means a load of growth and opportunity for the whole of the region. And I’m really excited about it.”
The Mayor explained why so much investment is currently coming into the region: “We have a plan and we have huge ambition and we’re working incredibly hard to make sure that everybody across this country and, frankly, across the world understands just what is so special about this region.
“And that’s why companies like McLaren, like Boeing, like Rolls-Royce, and a bunch of other ones besides are all choosing to invest in South Yorkshire, as well as increasingly the government. And it’s really exciting times.
“The site of what once was Orgreave is now the world’s first, the world’s best Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District. And it’s about tying together these assets here with the other assets in this corridor, which is unique.
“And we want everybody to understand just what opportunity looks like in this corridor that draws in more investment, draws in more attention and makes sure everybody understands just what’s on offer right here.”
He said the future is looking brighter for young people.
“When I grew up in South Yorkshire 40 years ago, nobody told me that I could have a career in a world-leading industry in a world-leading company right here on my doorstep. And times are changing. There is huge opportunity here.
“If you want to build things, make things, create things, innovate, there’s no better place in the world. So, it’s a brilliant place to be.
“You can stay here and go far. South Yorkshire is the best place for it.
“And if you’re a young person growing up here or you have young people in your family, you’ve got to make sure they understand just that opportunity is here on your doorstep.
“And we want them to take advantage of that and have that opportunity like nobody else.”
Coun Hunt described the area as “the beating heart of the South Yorkshire economy, a hub of economic activity that runs from Sheffield city centre through to Rotherham town centre and the work that takes place across that corridor in advanced manufacturing, in defence, in healthcare, in technology, is at the cutting edge of the UK’s industrial future.”
He added: “There is such momentum in our our city and in the region right now. A lot of the investment coming in and this is a plan to say we are committed to growing the economic activity, jobs, opportunity that happens here in the Don Valley corridor so that more people in our city and in our region can benefit from the huge opportunities that come from places like where we are today.
“It’s about jobs, it’s about communities, it’s about saying to the rest of the country and to the world there is huge potential.
“We want to get more investment coming in. We want more firms to say, ‘Right, we want to relocate because we know that there’s an enormous amount of skills in this region that we can benefit from so they can hire a new workforce and train the next generation’.”
He said the corridor could also connect up those firms to local supply chains, adding: “That’s going to benefit local businesses and help them to grow and to get more people with better jobs, more money in their pocket at the end of the week.”
Coun Hunt explained what is behind new investment to the area: “I think there’s a real sense right now that we’re moving forward and we’ve got a clear plan for our city and for our region.
“We’ve said for too long that our public transport network isn’t good enough. We’ve gone out and we’ve made the case to government that we need to improve it and we are.
“We’re setting out today a clear plan, clear set of priorities for the Don Valley Corridor that we can build the homes our communities need, create the job opportunities that they need.
“It’s about having clear priorities and when you’re clear about what you’re trying to achieve then and make a compelling case, as we have here, then we can get the investment that we see coming in from government but crucially from the private sector as well because the answer to all of our investment challenges is not going to be government.
“It is about using public money to unlock private capital that can then come in and really turbocharge a region like Don Valley.”
Coun Read said it was an exciting day to make such an important announcement for the “economic heartland” of the area.
“For Rotherham, that means we’re going to continue to invest in better public transport. It means, of course, the new mainline train station between Rotherham and Parkgate.
“We think 1,000 jobs will be directly located on that site, and 8,000 more across the local economy.
“It means we can invest in housing and improving life opportunities for people in the borough. And we can only do that because we’re working with the mayor and because we’re working with our colleagues.”
“This is a shared geography that affects all of us.”
Coun Read referred to Rotherham’s centuries of industrial innovation.
“I was talking about the Rotherham plough and its 1730 invention this morning to take the kind of ground sweep. Rotherham is a place where great inventions have happened before.
“The Rotherham plough revolutionised agriculture. The development of steel – the Bessemer process – revolutionised buildings and the environment that we live in.
“Rotherham and Sheffield have been absolutely at the heart of building the modern world. But for a lot of us growing up, it didn’t necessarily feel like that.
“So the opportunities that we have now are an opportunity to bring that back around, to create real, meaningful opportunities and prosperity for people in Rotherham and Sheffield. And we’ve got to grab those opportunities with both hands.”
Sir Jeremy said: “We’re delighted to be based here in South Yorkshire. It’s unique in Europe in being part of our Boeing production line.
“We have great relationships with the University of Sheffield, with the AMRC, and great local skills, and that’s a winning combination.
“I hope many more companies are going to be joining us here in South Yorkshire.”
Sir Jeremy said that the local workforce has been built from scratch, including bringing in new apprentices every year.
He added: “The benefit of having a cluster is that what Boeing does here, it can only do because of the strength of other local companies.
“All of our supply chain is within 100 miles of where we are today in Rotherham. So it’s having that depth and strength of companies that support each other and are there to provide resilience that makes a really strong manufacturing hub, and I know that is the intent in getting this partnership going today.”