It’s an interesting time to be living and working in Sheffield and to be part of what we all hope will be the start of a commercial transformation for the city.
Residents have known for a long time that Sheffield is one of the best cities in the UK to live in, offering good schools, pleasant affordable housing, excellent scope for entertainment and recreation with the Peak District National Park just minutes away. What we’ve not always been good at is broadcasting that to other parts of the country and beyond. Sheffield City Council’s Outdoor City Strategy aims to put that straight and make it an important part of the city’s attraction to outside investors, potential employees and visitors.
Over the years Sheffield has greatly enhanced its reputation for manufacturing excellence with the continued successful development of the Advance Manufacturing Park bringing significant investment from Boeing, Rolls Royce and now McLaren. The Council is now seeking to facilitate opportunities for the establishment of a supply chain for these companies from within the City Region, which offers scope for significant growth and employment. Sheffield has also long been known for academic excellence from its two leading Universities which are major employers in the city.
In Meadowhall we have one of the countries leading shopping centres and now finally we are seeing the emergence of the new Sheffield Retail Quarter, the first phase of which is the new HSBC Office complex; itself a massive show of confidence in Sheffield by HSBC. The importance of this development can’t be overstated because for many years the retail offer in the centre has simply not been good enough for a major city.
We have lobbied for some time for HS2 to stop at the Midland Main Line Station rather than an out of town location. This has proved fruitful and will provide more opportunities for growth: research shows that city centre stations drive growth more than out of town locations.
Research by the McKinsey Group has also identified that the greatest scope for economic growth is not with primary centres such as London, Paris and New York, but with second cities such as Sheffield. It is therefore vital that Sheffield plays its part within the emerging Northern Powerhouse, playing to its considerable strengths rather than seeking to mimic different economic models of Manchester or Leeds. We have to lobby hard with Transport for the North to ensure that connectivity between Sheffield and the other northern cities is improved to maximise future growth, but again there is now the opportunity to do that.
And we must demonstrate faith in our city and its council. This means that we become ambassadors for the city, and support the positive changes that the council has made in its practices and its commitment so that we can together put Sheffield back in its place as one of the UK's leading cities.
From Wake Smith's point of view, we have enjoyed a strong 2017 so far with divisional growth for some of our sectors – including property. To finish on a high, we have seen widespread mentions for our work in the 2017 Legal 500 including our Commercial Litigation and Clinical negligence divisions which have moved up to tier two. This is no small achievement and is down to a collaborative drive for excellence across the company.
For further information please contact Neil Salter on 0114 224 2037 or at [email protected]
