Rotherham businesses bucking recession

ROTHERHAM businesses have helped to bring record investment into the region in the past year, according to new figures.

The Yorkshire Forward statistics showed that the recession had failed to dampen Yorkshire and Humber’s position as a leading region for foreign investment. The region attracted a record 147 overseas investors in the last 12 months, the highest ever. South Yorkshire was the top area in the region, attracting 43 per cent of total business investments, while North Yorkshire secured nine per cent, West Yorkshire 33 per cent and the Humber 23 per cent.

Yorkshire Forward and local councils were directly involved in 60 per cent of the investments, some of the largest the region has seen in recent years, creating or safeguarding over 3,000 jobs and attracting over £165million of private-sector investment.

The United States was the region’s top investor for the second year, followed closely by Japan and Germany.

And despite challenging trading conditions, the advanced engineering, food and drink and enviromental technologies sectors remained the top sectors for investment in the region.

“Despite the global downturn, it is clear that the Yorkshire and Humber offer has continued to attract national and international major investments from world-class industry names, with the highest rates of investment into the region in the last decade,” said Theresa Lindsay, assistant director of business at Yorkshire Forward.

“These investments have created and safeguarded thousands of high value jobs, particularly in advanced technology, which puts the region at the forefront of development in key growth sectors.”

She added: “In a climate where businesses, now more than ever, are balancing the need for capital investment against the uncertainties of the global economy, the results endorse the strength of our region as the place to do business”

“Every £1 spent on overseas activity is delivering well over £11 of basic tax revenue to the Government, and this figure increases significantly if you take into consideration the revenue from additional spending into the economy that is created from new jobs.”

Investments range from Rolls-Royce, which has chosen to build its civil nuclear facility in South Yorkshire at the Yorkshire Forward-supported Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) in Rotherham, to investments from Sandvik Medical, in spending £7.5m on developing the Sandvik European Centre of Excellence in Sheffield, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ service division, positioning its European headquarters in Leeds.

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