Ambassadors in London to attract investment to city

By rjohnson robin johnson rjohnson@derbytelegraph.co.uk

THE Houses of Parliament will be the venue for an attempt to persuade public sector bodies to relocate their offices to Derby.

City MPs Bob Laxton and Margaret Beckett will host the Derby Embassy event, organised by Marketing Derby, which promotes the city and aims to attract investment.

About 75 guests are expected to attend on Monday, in the Terrace Marquee at the House of Commons.

They will include about 60 potential investors, joined by up to 20 Derby "ambassadors", along with city developers.

The Derby Embassy was launched in 2007 to raise the city's profile with investors.

Marketing Derby director John Forkin said: "The Government is due to announce measures that would see more departments moving out of London and we want to make sure that Derby is on their short list.

"At the Derby Embassy event we will be pushing the large portfolio of city centre office schemes."

Derby has a number of office projects that have planning permission but are awaiting construction.

These include Cathedral Green, One Derby, Sadler Square, Friar Gate Square and City Gate House.

Developer Bolsterstone has recently started work on its £12m office project, Central Square, in Cathedral Road.

Mr Laxton said: "There are a number of new offices in Derby waiting to be built which would be ideal for government departments.

"The challenge is helping to make it easier for the decision-makers to visualise these developments and events like this will give them an insight and tell them about all the others supporting regeneration in the city.

"I'm hopeful that if one department signs up others may follow, potentially bringing thousands of new jobs to Derby."

In order to woo potential new businesses and organisations to these developments, a number of guest speakers have been lined up for Monday's event.

Stuart Ladds, relocation programme manager at the Office of Governmental Commerce, an independent part of the Treasury responsible for ensuring that the Government gets value for money, will talk about why Derby is a good choice for government office relocations.

Bert Pijls, UK head of Citibank, which owns Pride Park-based internet bank Egg, about why his company has consolidated in Derby.

Derby City Council chief executive Adam Wilkinson will talk about the authority's recent announcement of a £10m fund to pay for regeneration projects in Derby.

Mr Forkin said: "The only way to grab the attention of the key decision makers is to keep banging the Derby drum and that is exactly what we intend to do."