• New £2 billion property investment portfolio launched, creating thousands of jobs and new homes across the country
• Projects set to benefit the creative, life sciences and retail sectors – including a new 12,500 seat stadium built in Gateshead
• Minister for Investment to showcase the projects at the UK’s largest property exhibition

The Department for International Trade has today (Wednesday 17 October) launched £2 billion worth of new investment opportunities which will create thousands of new homes and jobs across the UK.

The portfolio includes:

• Liverpool: The construction of more than 2,000 new homes at Festival Park and 1,000 new jobs in a new urban community at Paddington Village
• Gateshead: 5,000 new jobs at Follingsby Max, a new logistics and distribution centre in Gateshead, and a new 12,500 seater stadium at Gateshead Quays
• Edinburgh: A new world-leading bio and life sciences development at Edinburgh BioQuarter, which will make the city a leading hub for stem cell research
• Belfast: 21,000 sqm of new Grade A office space for the creative and technology sector at The Sixth, further enhancing the city’s growing reputation as a production centre for film and television
• Sussex: A new science and technology park at Burgess Hill, providing more than 90,000 sq metres of commercial space

The projects will create jobs and drive prosperity in local communities whilst contributing positively to the quality of life for local people.

International Trade Secretary Dr Liam Fox MP, said

It has never been easier to find opportunities for global investment in the UK and these seven projects worth £2 billion give investors the opportunity to do just that.

Not only will these projects promote our vibrant and successful real estate industry, they also create homes and jobs across the country. As an international economic department, our message is loud and clear: the UK is open for business, and we can help find the right investment for you.

Minister for Investment, Graham Stuart MP, said:

It’s a privilege for me to launch these new schemes, which will provide new homes and jobs for people across the country.

The UK is the number one destination in Europe for foreign investment, and we will continue to promote opportunities that help people find decent jobs and develop strong communities.

The 7 projects will be unveiled by the Minister for Investment at the MIPIM UK property conference being held in London this week and will include opportunities for UK and international investors in a range of sectors.

3,000 property professionals and over 300 potential investors and financial institutions from around the world will be in attendance.

Jake Berry MP, Minister for the Northern Powerhouse and Local Growth said:

From a transformed waterfront in Liverpool to rival any historic European city, to a new, state-of-the-art Quay in Gateshead, these new developments represent over £1 billion of world-class investment in the Northern Powerhouse.

With Government working hand-in-hand with business and attracting international investment from across the globe, we’re delivering transformative regeneration for communities from coast to coast across the North – further evidence that the Northern Powerhouse is one of the most business-friendly regions in the UK.

The portfolio has been put together by the DIT’s Capital Investment team which leads the government’s drive to attract and support international investment into large scale property, regeneration, infrastructure and energy projects across the UK.

This week the department will launch the Perfect Fit Prospectus – which uses technology to create individualised reports for potential investors – based on their country of origin and the sector they operate in – to give them the information they need to make an informed investment decision.

The new tool will help the DIT as it seeks to become the most innovative investment promotion agency in the world.

Further information:

• Further information on all seven new projects can be found on our investment website
• In the first half of 2017, 14% of global commercial property investment transactions occurred in the UK, second only to the USA
• The UK is also the leading European destination for venture capital investment, helping innovative firms quickly reach their potential, providing jobs and economic benefits across the UK

This week marks 90 years since Maentwrog Hydro-electric station began producing carbon–free electricity on 15 October 1928, and 50 years since Trawsfynydd nuclear power station officially opened on 18 October 1968.

Construction of both sites were incredible feats of pioneering 20th century engineering which, for Maentwrog, included the formation of the second largest man-made lake in Wales with the construction of its 4 concrete dams.

Trawsfynydd stopped generating electricity in 1991 but Maentwrog’s 30 megawatt power station has continued to generate carbon-free electricity, supplying around 4,000 gigawatts of to the National Grid over the last 90 years which is enough to power all the homes in Wales for 6 years.

Rainwater is collected from across the Snowdonia National Park through a network of rivers, leats and streams that feed into Trawsfynydd Lake. The water surges down 2 high pressure pipelines, at more than 4,000 gallons per second, to drive 2 turbines generating electricity. Just one inch of rainfall creates 24 hours of electricity generation.

Station Manager, Andy McAteer, commented:

Maentwrog has been operating since 1928 and will carry on harnessing this carbon-free energy source long into the future. We’ve got a close-knit team that has a unique opportunity to work on the site, knowing that we are only stewards of this beautiful and well-designed site looking after it for future generations.

Maentwrog’s younger cousin, Trawsfynydd Site, has had a successful year of decommissioning progress with many of the clean-up and hazard reduction projects coming to a successful end:

• hundreds of thousands of litres of radioactive waste have been safely retrieved, packaged and placed in the site’s interim term storage facility
• 3,300m2 of concrete walls and floors in the site’s former cooling ponds complex has been decontaminated
• over 1km of pipework has been removed
• several redundant buildings have been demolished
• 12,000kgs of a radioactive waste material known as ‘fuel element debris’ – created when the site was generating electricity – has been recovered and placed in safe storage

Trawsfynydd and Maentwrog sites are owned by the government’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), the organisation responsible for cleaning up 17 sites dating back to the earliest days of the nuclear industry.

Nuclear Energy Minister Richard Harrington:

For 90 years Wales has been pioneering the UK’s move to a greener, cleaner economy producing low-carbon electricity and during our first ever Green GB Week it’s encouraging to see how the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is also leading the world in decommissioning by cleaning up the UK’s legacy nuclear sites in Wales.

The NDA’s Director of Nuclear Operations, Alan Cumming, said:

Our sites were built by pioneers of the nuclear industry. These sites were ‘world’s firsts’ when they were built and they made a remarkable contribution to this country throughout the 20th century.

Today, the UK is at the leading edge of nuclear decommissioning as we safely pioneer approaches to cleaning up the legacy from the earliest days of the nuclear industry, while delivering value for the UK taxpayer.

The G7 Foreign Ministers said:

We, the G7 Foreign Ministers, of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the High Representative of the European Union, affirm our commitment to defending freedom of expression and protection of a free press.

We remain very troubled by the disappearance of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Those bearing responsibility for his disappearance must be held to account.

We encourage Turkish-Saudi collaboration and look forward to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia conducting a thorough, credible, transparent, and prompt investigation, as announced.

Further information

• Follow the Foreign Secretary on Twitter @Jeremy_Hunt

• Follow the Foreign Office on Twitter @foreignoffice and Facebook

• Follow the Foreign Office on Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn

Making Tax Digital for VAT will make it easier for businesses to manage their tax and will save them, and their agents, time which can instead be devoted to maximising business opportunities, encouraging growth and fostering good financial planning.

From 1 April 2019, under Making Tax Digital, around 1 million businesses registered for VAT with a taxable turnover above £85,000 will need to keep their VAT records digitally and file their returns using Making Tax Digital-compatible software.

The pilot opens today for around half a million businesses whose affairs are up to date and straightforward, and will extend to most other business types over the coming months. HMRC has also listened to concerns and will give a small group of customers with more complex requirements a further 6 months to prepare. This will ensure there is sufficient time for testing the service with them in the pilot before they are required to join.

Mel Stride MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, said:

HMRC is transforming the tax administration so that it’s more effective, more efficient and easier for taxpayers. Today’s announcement means that around half a million businesses will be able to join Making Tax Digital and start filing their VAT returns online, making it easier to get their tax right first time.

More and more businesses use digital tools every day to help them operate – tax shouldn’t be different. This is a major step towards bringing VAT into the 21st century.

Theresa Middleton, Director for Making Tax Digital for Business, said:

Millions of people are already banking, paying bills and interacting with their suppliers and customers online. Using digital tools to help businesses manage their business income and expenses and get their tax right builds on this momentum and will also help them get more control over their finances.

Eligible businesses and agents shouldn’t leave preparations to the last minute and are encouraged to join the pilot as soon as they can. Read more information on Making Tax Digital.

Background

HMRC’s ambition is to become one of the most digitally advanced tax administrations in the world and Making Tax Digital is making fundamental changes to the way the tax system works – transforming tax administration so that it is:

• more effective
• more efficient
• easier for taxpayers to get their tax right

Around 1,100 Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL) staff taking apart the former research site have been told about a series of future commitments including the offer of a job with one of the companies behind the site’s parent body organisation Cavendish Dounreay Partnership.

Managing Director Phil Craig said:

Our mission is around safety, delivery and the future transition of our people. We recognise that ongoing employment could become a distraction as decommissioning becomes more visible in the years ahead and so we want to act early and ensure our employees have a number of options. Everyone will have different aspirations so there cannot be a single solution.

There are some exciting opportunities on the horizon for the Highlands and beyond. We will develop training and support programmes to put individuals in the strongest possible position to move into another local job with one of the growing industries such as space or renewable energy. Importantly, there will also be a job offer with one of Dounreay’s parent companies for any DSRL staff member who wishes to receive one.

Cavendish Dounreay Partnership is a consortium made up of Cavendish Nuclear, Jacobs and AECOM. Together they employ more than 220,000 with locations around the world including Caithness.

Jamie Stone, Member of Parliament for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, said:

The Dounreay workforce has developed skills that are second to none and we should be proud of the work that they are doing to decommission the site. It is difficult to know that you are ultimately working your way out of a job and so I welcome early consideration of how these skills can be put to the best possible use in the future. The commitment from Cavendish Dounreay Partnership to offer jobs is good news for the workforce and I will be working with them to ensure as many of those roles as possible are based within this community.

Gail Ross, Member of the Scottish Parliament for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, added:

This is a positive announcement, not only for those working at Dounreay today, but for our community looking forward. It provides options and reassurance to many of the highly skilled workers who will seek ongoing employment. By making an announcement now, everyone has time to work together and understand how this can best benefit staff, the companies involved and our local area.

Cavendish Dounreay Partnership Chairman Simon Bowen said:

This is an early but clear commitment. The principle is to ensure that everyone who wants a job when their role at Dounreay is complete finds ongoing employment. We will be working with trade unions, local businesses and others in the months and years ahead to develop the detail and ensure the support is there for a team that right now has a busy programme of work ahead of it, delivering one of the most technically challenging nuclear closure programmes of its kind.