Yes, it’s time for the 2011 ‘Crackers and Turkeys’ awards for the inward investment community, so ‘in no particular order’, the winners are:
Firstly, the Crackers:
- Best UK Inward Investment Initiative – Tech City (www.techcityuk.com)
The drive to market East London as the Digital Capital of Europe is a fantastic example of using new tools (like the Tech City Map which shows real-time digital relationships between local firms).
- Best UK Inward Investment Project – New JLR Engine Plant, Black Country/Staffordshire
With 750 jobs, £355m investment and thousands of supply-chain spin-offs, the new JLR plant is a major boost for the whole of UK manufacturing.
- Best UK Inward Investment Agency – Scottish Development International
While other parts of the UK try to reconfigure and reorganise, SDI relentlessly talks up Scotland and pursues every sniff of a lead in every corner of the world with great success.
And now the Turkeys:
- Worst Inward Investment Decision by a Company – BAE Systems, Lancashire and Yorkshire
The thousands of defence jobs that will be lost in parts of the UK that really need advanced manufacturing is a devastating blow.
- Worst Inward Investment Decision by a Location - Staines-Upon-Thames
The much-maligned town is to be renamed ‘Staines-Upon-Thames’ in a move that “could boost inward investment”. Really? Opponents have said the name “sounds like river pollution”!
- Worst Inward Investment Decision by a Politician – Multiple Winners
This award is shared between those self-fulfilling prophets of doom that have talked down the UK’s inward investment potential post-riots and EU-rows this year – you know who you are.
(Note: in the interests of fair play we’ve tried to avoid mentioning any agencies that we’ve been involved with this year, who, of course, are all exceptional and would be otherwise worthy crackers!)
Christmas Charity – Claire House Children’s Hospice, Wirral
Instead of sending corporate Christmas cards, each December we choose a charity to support from one of the areas that we have been working in recently. This year we are supporting the amazing Claire House Children’s Hospice, Wirral, which cares for children and young people with life-limiting, life-threatening conditions from across Merseyside, Cheshire, North Wales and the Isle of Man. Their work is incredible and we are proud to support them.
Happy Christmas to all of our clients, friends and families!
