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PRESTON


She says that Preston’s connectivity, including its rail links, is a plus when it comes to staff recruitment. “We have staff coming to work here from far and wide. The train station means we can cast our net out.”


Judith Dugdale is partner at PM+M accountants. It operates across Lancashire but doesn’t currently have a Preston office.


She says: “The perception is the professional area in the city centre is not growing. Across Lancashire, people are moving into business parks.


“Part of the issue is that there are not enough modern working spaces. Businesses want to move into something that has all the tech, not an older building that you have to manage.”


THE MAIN LINE TO GROWTH


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The vision of Preston’s Station Quarter – with its much-needed Grade A office space – is still very much alive. Whether it will get off the drawing board remains to be seen.


The framework designed to drive investment and regeneration around the train station was endorsed by the city council in 2022.


The vision is simple – to capitalise on Preston’s rail links, particularly its location on the West Coast Main Line, to bring in jobs and investment.


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The blueprint for the plan is based on delivering high quality space to provide both public and private sector organisations with the kind of facilities in the city that they currently lack.


The proposed quarter centres on an area around the station as well as the areas around the Fishergate Shopping Centre, County Hall and a corridor stretching towards the university.


Part of the argument for investment was the station becoming a main stop for HS2 services in the future. That argument disappeared when it was decided to scrap the section of the high-speed rail project that would have linked Birmingham with the North West.


City based entrepreneur and investor Rob Binns, a member of the Preston Town Funds board and chief executive of Cotton Court Business Centre, believes there is now a new, compelling case for the Station Quarter to go ahead – the arrival of National Cyber Force (NCF) in Lancashire.


NCF, a partnership between defence and intelligence which carries out cyber operations daily to protect against threats to the UK, is creating its headquarters on a site near the city – bringing major investment and thousands of jobs to Lancashire.


Rob says: “HS2 has gone but it is still a realistic prospect for Preston with the arrival of National Cyber Force.”


He adds that people travelling to NCF will need places to meet off-site. Companies supporting NCF and its headquarters will also need office


space and the connectivity that the station delivers “makes perfect sense for them to have that office there.”


Rob says professional service operations would have a growing appetite to be based in the quarter as a result of NCF-driven growth, while city businessman Peter Jackson says: “We need to make sure the city is giving these new people what they want.”


Rob adds the Station Quarter is “critical” for the city’s professional services sector. “There are no Grade A offices. If a professional services firm wanted to come here they would want enough capacity to bring a full team in and not to be a satellite operation.


“There is also the issue of staff retention. We’re competing against Manchester and Liverpool with their big shiny buildings. That is what we


Andrew Dewhurst, director at Maple Grove Developments, says viability will be an issue when it comes to realising the Station Quarter vision. He says: “The standard of office accommodation in the city is poor. It is old, it is tired but the word on the lips of every developer at the moment is viability.”


Maple Grove delivered the Cathedral Quarter in Blackburn town centre with its Grade A office accommodation.


He says: “We needed a lot of local and central government help to get that off the ground and the subsidies that were available.


“I’m sure that will be needed in Preston and getting it off the ground won’t be easy.”


Rob Binns argues that if Lancashire had a directly elected mayor like Manchester and Liverpool, finding the funding to get the Station Quarter off the ground would be easier.


He says: “The economic mechanics are different. A mayoral authority can borrow and access different funds to fill that viability gap.


“If they believe a project is going to work, they have mechanisms in place to tap into those funds. In Lancashire we have to try and argue for them on an almost case-by-case basis.”


In her role as Innovation Ambassador Shirah Bamber is working to ensure Preston has a place


There is also the issue of staff retention. We’re competing against Manchester and Liverpool with their big shiny buildings. That is what we need at the heart of our connectivity, which is the train station


need at the heart of our connectivity, which is the train station.


“A business quarter, the leisure offering and the city living strategy all converging at around the same time – that would make a difference.”


Ashlea Thornton is a partner in the Preston office of Farleys Solicitors in Winckley Square.


Ashlea says: “When we first arrived the square was filled with accountants, banks, surveyors, law firms. A lot of those are moving out to the docks. We’ve seen an international bank make that move and others have followed.


“At the minute Preston seems confused about where it wants its business community to be. Does it want them out in the docks or in Winckley Square? People don’t know where to place themselves.”


at the table when it comes to discussions around NCF and that it is in the best place to take economic advantage of the organisation’s arrival.


She says it is a massive opportunity for business in the city as the organisation looks to develop its supply chain. Its needs will range from catering and cleaners to high-tech specialists. There will also be a need for meeting spaces.


Shirah says: “NCF is looking for solutions, they want to engage locally. My job is very much making sure Preston is preparing itself.”


Matthew Guest, head of local and regional business engagement at the University of Lancashire, says Preston is heading in that direction. “We’re beginning to build an environment where people want to live and spend their money.”


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