Residents in Rotherham and across South Yorkshire are set to benefit from thousands of new jobs and £1.2 billion of investment as part of England’s first Advanced Manufacturing Investment Zone, the Government has announced.
Building on the heritage and strength of manufacturing in the area, the Investment Zone is projected to bring new skill and investment opportunities to residents in Rotherham, Barnsley, Doncaster and Sheffield.
Residents will see barriers to economic growth reduced, including challenges to attracting investment, supporting business growth, and clear pathways to higher skilled jobs.
It will be the first of twelve Investment Zones established across England and will be based around a university and clusters of high growth industries like Advanced Manufacturing, life sciences or green industries, will deliver benefits directly to local communities.
The new Investment Zone is expected to help influence more than £1.2bn of private funding and the government projects that it could create up 8,000 jobs by 2030.
Residents will also benefit from further government funding through the Investment Zone worth up to £80 million through support for specialist training programmes and support for local businesses in the sector’s supply chains.
Rotherham Council’s Leader, Cllr Chris Read, said
We always welcome any investment into our region, and as a Council we have already secured millions in funding into our borough for our communities. The announcement builds on the successes of the Advanced Manufacturing Park and other big-name companies who have also chosen to invest here. Our new manufacturing economy is helping to bring more high paid jobs to Rotherham and the Investment Zone agreed for South Yorkshire today demonstrates the national significance of this.
We look forward to seeing how it will help us in achieving our aim of meeting the needs of our communities and building on the good work we are already doing in this area.
The investment from Boeing and its partners includes funding support from South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority and the University of Sheffield, and from government and industry through the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) Programme.