Nottingham
Over the past two decades Nottingham has successfully reinvented itself as a city with a high-value service sector economy and a competitive location for earnings, housing and office costs. As a result, the regional capital is held to be in a strong position to recover quickly from the economic downturn.
Nottingham is a core city and has been identified as one of the ten largest urban areas that are critical for the nation’s competitiveness, making it the leading economic driver of the East Midlands area. Over 300,000 people are employed within the local economy, which is worth more than £11billion and supported by a strong retail sector that accounts for the city’s ranking as the sixth-largest retail centre in the UK.
The Greater Nottingham area has been designated a Growth Point area, which means around 60,000 new homes will be built there by 2026, with the potential to further increase the 3million people who live within an hour’s drive of the city.
Nottingham is regarded as a regional centre for business with a high proportion of jobs in the professional sector. Local businesses view the rail service to the capital as essential to its continued economic prosperity, and strong support exists for the HSR concept.
Firms in specialist industries are growing and Nottingham is one of just six cities to have been awarded Science City status by the Government. Fifty-four per cent of people are employed within knowledge-intensive industries. Two high-achieving universities with 60,000 students make Nottingham the largest centre for higher education in the East Midlands.
Nottingham’s rail connection to the capital is poor, especially when compared to mainline services from other core cities, and the Midland Mainline suffers from overcrowding on the southern section; HSR would free up capacity and benefit both the city and region by reducing currently slow journey times.
“Being centrally located Nottingham is well placed to benefit considerably from a direct connection with a UK high-speed rail network which will boost our economy and make us a more attractive city to invest. For too long, being served only by a spur of the Midland Mainline, we have suffered from comparatively slow rail journey times to the capital and poor quality connections to the other Core Cities putting us at an economic disadvantage. If we can secure a connection to the heart of the City that directly interchanges with our own state of the art tram system (Nottingham Express Transit) we have the opportunity to transform the rail experience and at the same time make a real contribution to meeting carbon reduction targets.”
Cllr Jane Urquhart – Portfolio Holder for Transport and Area Working, Nottingham City Council