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Between 1991 and 1997 city job creation soared by 14.3%, compared to UK growth rate of 5.9% over same period.

Banking, finance and insurance grew by 46%. Capital One, for instance, is currently doubling its workforce to reach 2,500 by the end of the year and is building a £60 million extension to its current site.

Nottingham is now the UKÂ’s third richest city in terms of Gross Domestic Product.

The cityÂ’s growth industries include media, telecommunications and financial services.

Around £7 billion of development is currently transforming the city centre. Over 200 retailers still waiting to move in. Nottingham is the fourth best shopping destination in the UK, behind only London’s West End, Glasgow and Leeds, according to analysts Experian. Two million regular shoppers. New 1.5 million sq ft regional shopping centre planned at the Broadmarsh with work likely to start on site in 2003.

Nearly 400 cafes, bars, clubs and pubs, with a capacity of 111,000, have responded to this new market, including the £50 million cinema and café complex at The Cornerhouse where tenants already benefitting from record numbers of customers.

Nottingham has recently attracted residents back into the city centre, most visibly into spectacular lofts in the historic regenerated Lace Market. By end of 2002 number of city centre residents likely to exceed 7,500. There are currently 1,600 dwelling under construction.

One in twelve city residents is a university student. NottinghamÂ’s two universities provide a high quality labour pool for many city companies.

Unemployment halved over the last four years. Net gain of 40,000 jobs over the next ten years has been predicted, with almost all likely to be in the service sector.

Nottingham now poised at a new threshold, with real possibilities of becoming an important and inspiring European city. New developments opening up on the fringes of the city – at Nottingham Business Park near the M1 where work will soon start on one of the UK’s most prestigious employment sites, at Queensgate, to the south of the city, along the River Trent and on Nottingham’s long neglected Eastside. Real opportunities to extend the city centre and its associated prosperity in every direction. Looking to achieve a psychological step change, too, to think bigger and better, so that we can achieve our potential.

Transport vital component of cityÂ’s regeneration. With increased Government funding and revenue generated by workplace parking we are determined to achieve the integrated transport infrastructure that will both support our continued expansion and improve our environment. Only in this way can we ensure the high quality of life that is vital for our continued growth.

Work is already well underway on our £200 million tram system, Nottingham Express Transit – and traffic hasn’t ground to a halt yet. It has already generated £30 million of work for local companies. We hope to start building Lines Two, Three and perhaps even Four, fanning out into the city region, as soon as passengers start using Line One, in November 2003. A centrepiece of the new system will be a spectacular transport interchange over the current Midland Rail Station, where the tram, trains, coaches, buses – and even possibly electric cars – will converge.

HOWEVER despite its apparent prosperity, Nottingham is still the 12th most deprived local authority in the country. It is working hard to link employment opportunities with its disadvantaged areas. Brownfield regeneration, using imaginative masterplans to link the success of city centre with more deprived areas, crucial to the cityÂ’s future. Also see the cityÂ’s planned new public transport infrastructure as an egalitarian instrument that will open up areas of social exclusion, creating access to jobs and opportunities.

A strong planning framework guides this, with masterplans commissioned by Nottingham Regeneration Limited, the public/private sector organisation that has been a pioneer for regeneration companies. These are responsive, sensitive solutions that have been driven by the needs of city residents, particularly in our deprived districts.

Development work already started along the River Trent after a masterplan drawn up by consultants EDAW for the Nottingham Waterside, a 250 acre area stretching from Trent Bridge to Colwick. The plan will create a string of new, sustainable communities, incorporating leisure and employment uses that make the most of the riverside location, including a linear park.

Tenders are now in for a masterplan for the Eastside, beyond the National Ice Centre, driven by employment needs. This can be seen as a series of links, between the prosperous city centre and the Lace Market, where nearly small 200 creative companies have recently colonised the spectacular warehouses of Nottingham’s former lace barons – continuing through the £40 million National Ice Centre, through to the deprived districts of St Anns and Sneinton. The National Ice Centre has already stimulated hotel development around it, and it has pulled cafes, restaurants and bars down the Hockley and Goosegate from the city centre. The challenge is now to extend this new prosperity, and the jobs that accompany it.

NRL, in partnership with Railtrack, Central Trains, Midlands Mainline and the County Council will also soon commission a materplan for Nottingham’s remaining Southside, around the train station. This will focus on the employment needs of the city and will extend the success of Nottingham’s new canal quarter, a £200 million high tech corridor now supporting media, communications and financial services companies, as well as the associated clubs, cafes, bars – and fitness clubs to work off the inevitable effects of Nottingham’s new café society. Again, transport will be a major consideration and economic driver of this area.

One other city regeneration area should also be mentioned – NG7 where regeneration has been driven by the need to ensure that there are still is still suitable accomodation for Nottingham’s manufacturing sector. Here NRL has become involved in direct development, supplying 55,000 of space on brownfield sites specifically earmarked for local employment in one of the city’s most deprived districts.

Nottingham has a holistic approach to town centre regeneration –incorporating transport and training. Physical regeneration allied to human need. Joined up thinking is producing joined up regeneration that is aimed at ending social exclusion.