INTERVIEW
Business Durham boss buoyed by post-Covid progress
Sarah means business
Sarah Slaven talks to Wear Business executive editor Rob Lawson about how Business Durham is driving the local economy …
PICTURES BY GRAEME ROWATT
L ook out of Sarah Slaven ’ s Aykley Heads office and you can see exactly how Business Durham is helping to drive the local economy .
Aykley Heads Business Park is being built around Business Durham ’ s Salvus House HQ .
The area , close to Durham City , is a designated strategic employment site and is already home to Atom Bank , Watersons , the North East of England Chamber of Commerce and many other businesses .
When completed , the business park will be worth £ 400m to County Durham ’ s economy and will create hundreds of new jobs . And the extra workspace is needed . Business Durham has 494 units across its county-wide portfolio of commercial office space , modern laboratories and industrial property units , and currently has an occupancy rate of 98 per cent .
“ It ’ s a sign of how well we ’ re doing and demand for industrial properties in particular has never been greater ,” explained Sarah , who was confirmed as the permanent managing director of Business Durham , Durham County Council ’ s business support service , in February this year .
The North East Technology Park ( NETPark ) in Sedgefield is full – and home to more than 40 companies employing more than 600 people .
NETPark opened in 2004 and is recognised as one of the UK ’ s premier science , engineering and technology parks – the only one with two National Catapult Centres . It is managed by Business Durham who work with partners CPI and Durham University to give tenants access to the infrastructure , support , facilities and academic expertise they need to take their ideas from concept to commercialisation . Phase Three of NETPark is under development and is part of even larger expansion plans .
Meanwhile , across in Murton , Jade Business Park is also fully let .
Sarah added : “ What ’ s great about Jade is how quickly we were able to let the high-quality industrial units – it was full 18 months after completion . It ’ s also interesting to see a real green economy cluster has developed there .”
As with NETPark , there is more to come at Jade . She said : “ We have outline planning permission to develop a second phase that includes an additional 39.64 acres of development land with six units from 20,000 to 85,000 sq ft . Phase 3 has the capacity to accommodate large scale design and build projects up to 250,000 sq ft .”
And she ’ s sure the demand for more industrial space is down to Covid and Brexit factors . She explained : “ There is a lot of pent-up demand and the economy has really started to get going again , but we ’ re also seeing that businesses feel they need to store more material , products or components to help manage supply chain issues .”
wear . business – the voice of business for the Wear region | 17