Retail Development

Work to transform the heart of Peterborough with a massive £450 million investment is set to start in 2009 following the submission of a planning application for the  North Westgate development in the city centre. The scheme will include a brand new Marks & Spencer department store, a multi-screen cinema, 60 new shops, several restaurants and 100 new homes.

Meanwhile, the Hammerson/Morley joint venture responsible for North Westgate is also planning a major upgrade of its adjacent Queensgate shopping centre.

Away from the city centre, a multi-million pound refurbishment of the out-of-town Bretton Centre has recently been completed, work is well under way on a £10 million refurbishment of the Orton Centre and public consultation has begun on a planned redevelopment of Werrington Centre.

Massive new Matalan and B&Q stores have recently opened in the ‘retail warehouse’ development alongside Bourges Boulevard and plans have been submitted for a £50 million extension of the Brotherhood Retail Park on Lincoln Road.

City council figures show that more retail developments then ever before are taking place across the city, with over 9,000 square metres of new space in shops, cafes, pubs and restaurants opened in Peterborough during 2006/7.

They are all adding to Peterborough’s established reputation as a major regional shopping centre .

Plans for development of the city centre are creating new retail opportunities.

House Building

House building in Peterborough hit an 18-year high in 2006/7 with 1,265 properties being constructed – 47 per cent higher than the 2005/06 total of 862.

More than 2,000 homes have been constructed over the past few years in Hampton, the township on the southern perimeter of Peterborough which will eventually provide 7,300 homes for 18,000 people. Procurement has recently begun for a multi-million pound joint service centre for Hampton which will include a library, café, meeting rooms, a church, sports and health care facilities. A swimming pool could also be included.

Work has begun on building 550 homes at Potter’s Way in Fengate. In the first stage of the scheme, developer Bellwinch Homes is putting up 261 apartments.

Meanwhile, around 1,500 new homes are set to be built at Stanground and 1,200 at Paston. A development of 900 new homes at Woodston is well on the way to completion as are smaller developments at the East of England Showground and Oundle Road.

National regeneration agency English Partnerships recently announced that a site in Peterborough is to become the country’s second zero carbon community in its Carbon Challenge. House builders have been invited to express interest in developing 450 environmentally sustainable homes at South Bank Phase 1 (Glebe Road). This is the first step in the competition process that will end in spring 2008 with the appointment of a preferred developer for the site.

The Carbon Challenge is an opportunity for developers to gain experience of building to the highest level of the government's Code for Sustainable Homes. It calls on developers to demonstrate that zero carbon homes, combined with cutting-edge building design and technology, are economically viable on a commercial scale.

All these developments – and more – are adding to the extensive mix of homes available to buy or rent in the city.

Health care

Construction of a new acute hospital, a new mental health unit and a new integrated care centre is under way in a £300 million investment in new health care facilities. In the primary care sector, plans have been submitted to build a £2.5 million extension to the Thomas Walker Medical Centre in Millfield and procurement is under way for new health facilities in Hampton.

Education

There has been massive recent investment in secondary, further and higher education facilities in the city.

Funding of £10 million for a new Anglia Ruskin University campus close to the city centre has been agreed by the East of England Development Agency and the Higher Education Funding Council for England and there are plans for a £75 million redevelopment of Peterborough Regional College.

The government has committed £100 million to fund the building of new schools in Peterborough, including the new £46 million Thomas Deacon Academy designed by Foster & Partners which opened in September 2007. A private finance initiative (PFI) worth £68 million has been used to build another new school – The Voyager – north-west of the city which also opened in September 2007.

New £10.5 million sports facilities at Jack Hunt School were officially opened in September 2007 and there is extension and refurbishment work being undertaken at Ken Stimpson Community School and The King’s School. Wind turbines, solar panels and geothermal heating are to be used as part of a £12.9 million scheme to transform St John Fisher School.

Arts and leisure

A new studio and rehearsal area, together with improved backstage facilities, are being built at Peterborough's Key Theatre – which has only recently had a major refurbishment – thanks to a £630,000 grant from the Growth Area Fund.

An outdoor swimming pool overlooking Ferry Meadows is to be built in Thorpe Wood Business Park.

These developments are adding to Peterborough’s existing exciting mix of sports, leisure and cultural attractions.

Environmental improvements

The Wildlife Trust has received £9 million for its Great Fen project. The cash will allow the trust to buy 14.5 square kilometres of land and 70 kilometres of ditches near Peterborough and turn it back into a wetland landscape.

Peterborough Environment City Trust is working with partners in the city – including Opportunity Peterborough, Peterborough City Council, Natural England, the Forestry Commission and the Environment Agency - to improve the network of green open spaces (the green infrastructure) of Peterborough. The ‘green grid’ project will create new parks and links between the city’s open spaces.

The city's Corn Exchange could be pulled down to help rejuvenate the centre of Peterborough. Peterborough City Council recently purchased this 1960s concrete office block close to Cathedral Square with funding support from English Partnerships.

Opportunity Peterborough has started public consultation on a Public Realm Strategy which will further improve the quality of the city centre environment.

These developments – and others – will help to ensure that the city’s growth is environmentally sustainable.

Transport

Peterborough’s already excellent links with the rest of the UK are being enhanced with significant investment in road and rail infrastructure.

Work is under way on major road improvement schemes, including adding additional capacity to the London Road gateway to the city centre, a £5.8 million project to turn a one-mile stretch of the city’s Paston Parkway into a dual carriageway and a £7 million project to widen a section of the A1139 Fletton Parkway to three lanes.

An £80 million pound project to upgrade the A1073 between Peterborough and Spalding is to start in April 2008.

First Capital Connect has unveiled a programme to refresh its fleet of 40 ‘Class 365’ trains that operate most services between Peterborough and Kings Cross.

Network Rail has announced plans for more trains and more seats on busy services in and out of London. Peterborough could benefit from more long-distance high speed trains from Kings Cross, improved facilities at the station and additional platforms to accommodate more trains.

The Department for Transport has awarded the contract to operate InterCity services on the east coast main line from December 2007 to NXEC Trains Ltd, a subsidiary of National Express Group. As part of its winning bid for the contract NXEC committed to improved services and further investment in rolling stock.

Commercial property

The most recent figures published by Peterborough City Council show that the total number of business properties in its rating list increased by more than three per cent during 2006/7.

New developments continue to add to the mix of new and existing commercial property on the market in the city and surrounding areas.

Among these new developments are Opus, a recently opened £12 million four-acre development of 11 office units by Artisan (UK) Developments Ltd in Hampton’s Cygnet Park, and the £140 million Gateway Peterborough warehouse and distribution park at Alwalton Hill.

At the East of England Showground, work has just been completed on a £7 million project to introduce new state-of-the-art exhibition and conference facilities.

Business

Up to 1,500 new jobs could be created in Peterborough after more than 1,000 former employees of Pearl Assurance were transferred to Diligenta, a subsidiary of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), as part of a £486 million contract which will cover the next 12 years. This is just one example of the dynamism of the financial services sector in the city – one of our four key business clusters.

TV shopping company Ideal Shopping Direct is planning an £8 million expansion of its Peterborough headquarters which could create up to 100 new jobs. Up to 70 new jobs are set to be created in Peterborough as Dunelm Mill prepares to transform its city store into a 27,500 square foot superstore.

B&Q’s recent move from its current location to a new store in Maskew Avenue, which is four times the size of its previous premises, created 250 new jobs as well as retaining 64 employees from the previous store. The move was of particular significance because it releases a key development site on the South Bank in the city centre.

Peterborough will become the UK and Ireland headquarters for the new global travel firm created by the merger between Thomas Cook and My Travel – safeguarding the jobs of more than 1,600 existing local Thomas Cook employees and perhaps creating more jobs in the city.

Royal Haskoning, one of the world’s largest consulting engineering companies, has just opened its new UK headquarters in Peterborough and mental health charity Mencap recently created 50 new jobs in the city when it moved into a new support centre in Hampton.