In less than a year the Olympic Games come to London, and one of the key factors in winning the bid was the creation of a lasting legacy. But in this respect the UK government may have shot itself in the foot with the starter’s pistol.
The Wellcome Trust was among the front-runners to take over the Olympic Park after the games and deliver a world-class centre for technology and innovation and up to 7,000 high-quality new jobs, making a substantial contribution to the regeneration and economic prosperity of East London that went well beyond just bricks and mortar.
It planned to create an iconic hub – the Life Sciences Innovation Centre, which would support jobs, create new businesses and provide homes. Its focus would be technology, application of research for health and innovation, and sports science. It could have become the Silicon Valley of Europe.
But the plan has fallen at the final hurdle and although The Wellcome Trust made it to the podium it has been denied the gold medal. However, the real loser is almost certainly the UK’s life sciences sector – this unique opportunity to capitalise on the country’s excellence in pharma r&d and rebuild a world-leading position will not come again.
Meanwhile, the legacy of Pfizer’s withdrawal from its site in Sandwich, East Kent, is also being determined, as the UK government has made the Discovery Park part of a new Enterprise Zone. The associated package of incentives, including simplified planning rules and tax breaks to promote growth, aims to encourage new start-up businesses and other investors.
The Government is apparently keen to make use of the specialist skills in the area and to maintain a life sciences hub in East Kent, and the scheme has been welcomed by many in the scientific and engineering community as these companies tend to have relatively high start-up costs.
But there is a real risk that the incentives in the new zone may simply suck in companies and jobs from neighbouring areas, resulting in no net gain overall.
Compared with the golden vision of The Wellcome Trust’s proposal, the Enterprise Zone scheme is lagging at the back of the field and will probably limp home to the lukewarm applause of an also-ran.