Enterprising St. Helens appoints leading consultancy.

St.Helens Council has appointed leading national economic development consultancy Regeneris to help the town’s ambition to be recognised as a regional location of choice to work, live, invest and visit.

The company will focus on maximising the impact of the £13.4-million St.Helens Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI) programme while revising the Borough’s ten-year City Growth Strategy (CGS) as it reaches its halfway point.

St.Helens was one of only four areas in the country to pilot the City Growth approach imported by Chancellor Gordon Brown from the United States in 2002.  It was also the only district in the North West  to be awarded Round 1 LEGI funding last year.  

Regeneris’s work will involve the development and application of an evaluation framework for the  LEGI programme, which is being managed by St.Helens Council and largely delivered by the private sector via St.Helens Chamber.  It will also involve an overall evaluation of LEGI’s success in St.Helens at the end of its initial three-year delivery term.  The aim is to ensure that  LEGI delivers maximum benefit for local businesses.

The review of the City Growth Strategy will measure progress towards achieving the ambitious agenda for St.Helens to become a “vibrant modern place for enterprise and a regional location of choice” via  50 transformational projects. This will in turn inform the production of a new, business-focused 10-year blueprint for the economic growth of “St.Helens plc”.

Councillor Neil Taylor, Executive Member for Urban Regeneration at St.Helens Council, says:  “St.Helens has an excellent track record of delivering cutting edge regeneration programmes that we are keen to maintain and build on.  Hence the desire to review and update the Borough’s 10-year regeneration strategy and to independently evaluate our most significant ever enterprise initiative.

“St.Helens has undergone massive regeneration and change over the last 5 years. As one of the country’s leading economic development consultancies, Regeneris has the expertise and experience to help us realise our ambition for St.Helens to be recognised as a regional location of choice in which to live, work, invest and visit”.

Kath Boullen, Chief Executive of St.Helens Chamber adds; “Within the space of only nine months the St.Helens LEGI programme has already led to the creation of over 230 new business start-ups and 530 new jobs.  This ongoing evaluation work will help us maintain these excellent results over the initial 3-year lifespan of the £13.4 million LEGI programme and ensure that new and existing local businesses gain maximum benefit.

“One of the key features of the original City Growth Strategy was the extent to which local businesses were involved in determining the overall economic development strategy for St.Helens.  Five years on the time is right to review and refocus the CGS, and the emphasis on private sector involvement will be just as strong this time round.”

Stephen Nicol, Managing Director of Regeneris said; “We are very pleased to have been selected to undertake this important twin project.  Our work on the original St.Helens City Growth Strategy, plus the national LEGI evaluation consultancy we are conducting for the Government, makes us uniquely suited to adding value to the impressive initiatives being implemented in St.Helens.

“It is very encouraging to see St.Helens Council and St.Helens Chamber continuing to adopt such a proactive and innovative approach to enterprise and regeneration. Our immediate focus will be on LEGI evaluation with the CGS review work commencing this summer”.

Ends

Press release issued: January 23 2007