Business in East Anglia

Suffolk County Council in joint venture to build 3000 homes

Suffolk County Council has chosen Lovell Partnerships as preferred bidder for a joint venture which will build nearly 3,000 homes on council land involving  development with a gross value of £700 million over the next 15 years. Five sites have been identified in Lowestoft, Mildenhall, Bramford, West Row and Newmarket with space for around 2,800 homes plus new schools, employment land and open spaces. Contracts are expected to be signed in the spring and the 50/50 joint venture set up in the summer. The proposals also include an option for further sites to be delivered by the jv ...

Green light for new warehouse in Bury

West Suffolk Council has given the go ahead for Bury-based tool and equipment supplier Sealey to build a large new warehouse on Suffolk Business Park in the town. Local architects Wincer Kievenaar will lead the construction of the 200,000 square ft warehouse and offices which will be next to Sealey’s existing sites in Kempson Way.

Mark Sweetman, group projects director for Sealey & Dellonda, said: “This new development will provide us with the increased space we need to accommodate additional stockholding, as well as the anticipated extra staff we will need to employ. The growth of bo...

Business sentiment improves as firms look to return to normality

Business sentiment improved in December and employment levels rose at a faster pace as private firms in the East of England stayed confident about higher activity levels in 2022, according to a key survey of purchasing managers . Hopes of a return to normality, new product launches and machinery upgrades underpinned optimism as staffing grew at the strongest rate since last summer to meet sutained higher demand.

The NatWest East of England PMI business activity index fell from 54.7 in November to 51.6 in December, signalling only a marginal uptick in business activity as Covid surged a...

Best performance in a decade as sales accelerate at Norfolk-based Lotus

Lotus, the sport car maker based at Hethel outside Norwich, has unveiled its best annual global retail sales performance since 2011. Retailers sold 1,710 new cars in 2021 – a year when the company's Elise, Exige and Evora cars ended production – a 24 per cent rise on the previous year.

The Elise was the global top-seller. UK sales rose 29 per cent and sales in the USA and Canada were up 111 per cent, the best performance in 10 years. Records were broken in the Asia-Pacific region, where Japan had its best year since 2015.

Geoff Dowding, executive director, sales and aftersales, Lotus...

Work set to start on £11 million extension to University of Essex office village

Work on a £10.7m extension of Parkside Office Village, a hub for SMEs on the Knowledge Gateway research and tech park at the University of Essex in Colchester, will start early in the new year.

RG Carter has been appointed main contractor on a new four-storey building which will open in 2023 providing 3,764 sq m of flexible office space. The new building will offer opportunities for businesses to move to the campus and take advantage of links to the university’s research, graduate and student talent pool, facilities and business networks. The new Institute for Public Health and Well...