Enterprise Zone success for Blackpool Airport

The Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Economic Development Company has welcomed a decision to extend Lancashire’s Enterprise Zone to include Blackpool Airport.

It is hoped the addition of Enterprise Zone status – which comes into effect in January 2016 – could support as many as 3,000 new jobs over more than two decades to 2037.

‘’The EDC will now be working with all interested parties in order to achieve the maximum possible benefit for the region.”

“It has excellent transport links by road, rail and, of course, by air and now brings the benefits of an Enterprise Zone which, we hope, will help encourage businesses to invest. In turn, we’re working with local training providers and educational establishments to give our local workforce the skills they will need jobs to seize these opportunities.”

One will allow businesses to benefit from rate relief – the most common benefit locating a business on an Enterprise Zone brings – up to a maximum of £275,000 over a five year period for new businesses locating before May 2018. This is subject to certain qualifying criteria.

Where businesses are already located within the Enterprise Zone area, there is no automatic right to rates relief or ECA, however, it can be applied where significant numbers of new jobs is being created or significant capital investment is taking place.

While achieving Enterprise Zone status does not do anything in the immediate future to return commercial passenger flight to the site, it does strengthen the incentives for investment. The runway will remain in place in full and there is clear stated intention from both Balfour Beatty and Blackpool Council to pursue commercial passenger flight opportunities. The Greenbelt status of some areas of the airport site is unaffected.