The England-wide development agency for film, TV and digital media companies; Creative England has selected Birmingham Science Park as the home for its new Birmingham office.
Established in October 2011, Creative England has grown out of the successful regional screen network previously operating across the English regions. It now covers the whole of England outside of London, operating out of Bristol, Manchester, Nottingham and Birmingham. The Birmingham based team of six will occupy a prominent 700 sq ft ground floor office next to Café Resource in the Science Park’s flagship Faraday Wharf building.
Creative England’s relocation to Birmingham Science Park from Regent Place in the Jewellery Quarter is a strategic move in recognition of the planned growth of its remit to offer specialist support to the games, digital and creative services, in addition to the film and television sector. Its ultimate aim is to ensure the continuity of a vibrant digital media industry outside London, and to support the sustainable growth of independent creative businesses and the talent that feeds them.
Caroline Norbury, CEO of Creative England said: “Creative England has already made awards of more than £66,000 to groups, organisations and individuals working in the West Midlands. Our move to Birmingham Science Park will enable us to interact with all the start-up businesses that are based in the Entrepreneurs for the Future incubation centre, located opposite our new office. There are also a number of very exciting digital gaming and creative businesses based at the Science Park which have graduated out of the incubation centre and exude high-growth potential.
“Creative England will enjoy a much higher profile by being based in such a prominent location and the team is really looking forward to working with and supporting more creative talent across the region.”
Wholly owned by Birmingham City Council, Birmingham Science Park comprises 250,000 sq ft of high quality business space within 11 buildings across its 14 acre campus. The Park welcomes small businesses requiring as little as one desk space, or just a hot-desking package, through to SMEs and large corporates. Self-contained office suites in existing high quality buildings, such as Priestley Wharf, are immediately available up to 14,000 sq ft. The Park can also accommodate design and build requirements from the tech sector from 15,000 sq ft up to 200,000 sq ft.
Dr David Hardman MBE, CEO of Birmingham Science Park said: “A principal activity of our Entrepreneurs for the Future programme is to prepare the start-up businesses for investor readiness and open doors to the various options for business finance and support. We are absolutely delighted that by attracting Creative England to Faraday Wharf, we can directly promote introductions with their team and engineer pitch meetings for our start-up businesses. It will be inspiring for our entrepreneurs to be able to interact in an informal and frequent fashion with this key development agency.”
Birmingham Science Park’s £35 million Digital Plaza development plans remain on track, with the process of selecting a joint venture partner now down to a shortlist of three. The decision to select the joint venture partner will be made this summer and work could start onsite before the end of 2012. The Digital Plaza site is within the Greater Birmingham & Solihull LEP’s Enterprise Zone.