Category: Business

Cambridge House Prices

17:52 Wednesday 1st May 2013
Drive
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[C]HRIS MANN: There’s a warning this evening that the meteoric rise of Cambridge house prices is unsustainable. and will cause ruin when they come crashing down. David Furlow founder of cambridgehouseprices.co.uk said there’s a Cambridge delusion, in which people have been conditioned to assume house prices will only go up. I put this theory to leading local estate agent Chris Carey of Bidwells. (TAPE)
CHRIS CAREY: Well to be honest, this is no surprise that we have concerns raised, because Cambridge as ever tends to buck the trend, the UK housing trend. I’ve been in Cambridge all my life, and I’ve been in property over thirty years, and over the last few decades this has arisen quite regularly. I certainly remember the late ’80s boom, which quite frankly was certainly unsustainable. And of course most of us who were around at that time remember the long recession from ’89 through to the mid-90s. So this isn’t a recent phenomenon.
CHRIS MANN: So, is there a chance that these prices will come crashing down, the bubble will burst and everyone will be ruined? Continue reading “Cambridge House Prices”

Cambridgeshire Chamber Boss Slams Negative Media “Pestonitis”

10:23 Thursday 25th April 2013
Andie Harper Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[A]NDIE HARPER: The UK has avoided a triple dip recession. The economy grew by 0.3% in the first three months of the year. Let’s talk to the Chief Executive of the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce, John Bridge. John good morning to you.
JOHN BRIDGE: Yes, good morning Andie.
ANDIE HARPER: So first things first John, have you broken out the champagne? Are you celebrating? Continue reading “Cambridgeshire Chamber Boss Slams Negative Media “Pestonitis””

Vince Cable Cambridge Business Week

08:09 Monday 18th March 2013
Bigger Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: The Government must do more to push the Cambridge brand to help technology start-ups compete on the world stage. That’s what companies have told us this morning, as Cambridge prepares to welcome Vince Cable, the Secretary of State for Business this morning to the city’s first ever Business Week. Jeremy Cooke runs independent games developer Gameware Europe. (TAPE)
JEREMY COOKE: Vince Cable has a lot on his plate, obviously. But if we are to emerge as a major global powerhouse of digital creativity, then of course there needs to be investment in the digital creative sector. And right now there simply isn’t. There’s not a great deal going on in the UK to support the creative industries. (LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Well Donald McGarva is the CEO of Amino Communications, which is based in Swavesey. (TAPE)
DONALD MCGARVA: He seems to be talking a lot about these other clusters, when actually we’ve got one here that we could actually expand much much faster, and much more successfully as well. (LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Dr Andy Harter spoke to us earlier, the CEO of RealVNC, which is based in Cambridge, and one of the organisers of today’s event. (TAPE)
ANDY HARTER: This is the most significant technology cluster in Europe. There’s 1,500 companies, 53,000 people employed directly by it, and a current combined turnover of over £11 billion. (LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Well as we mentioned the Business Secretary Vince Cable is on the show this morning. Morning Mr Cable.
VINCE CABLE: Good morning to you.
PAUL STAINTON: First of all let’s take their points. Is enough being done for this industry? Is Cambridge itself, as a major hub in this sort of industry, being ignored? Continue reading “Vince Cable Cambridge Business Week”

UK Economy Making Steady Progress

07:28 Thursday 6th December 2012
Bigger Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: Gerald says, “electricity up, gas up, telephone up, water rates up, council tax up, petrol up, food bill up, taxes up. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, the only growth industry is unemployment. If it doesn’t affect you now, just give it a little more time. It soon will.” Well Tony Bonsignore from our Business Unit was all over that yesterday, weren’t you, the Autumn Statement. And it’s not only going to affect our tax and our petrol and everything else. It might affect our triple-A rating, mightn’t it Tony? Continue reading “UK Economy Making Steady Progress”

Alconbury Enterprise Zone is Excellent News for Peterborough

07:12 Wednesday 17 August 2011
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

ANDY GALL: Neil Darwin is Director of Economic Development at Opportunity Peterborough, and can speak to us now. Good morning Neil.
NEIL DARWIN: Good morning Andy.
…………..
ANDY GALL: Alconbury have been chosen as the Enterprise Zone by the Government.
NEIL DARWIN: Indeed.
ANDY GALL: Peterborough did apply but wasn’t selected.
NEIL DARWIN: That’s right.
ANDY GALL: Your thoughts this morning?
NEIL DARWIN: We’re really pleased. The important thing was we got an Enterprise Zone in the area, and it’s fantastic news that we have indeed got one. The important thing is that having Alconbury deisgnated means that it’s good for Peterborough, irrespective.
ANDY GALL: Does it mean though that because Enterprise Zones in the ’80s, when they came about, they were sort of blue-chip companies would be drawn to them, but then they became sort of employment blackspots.
NEIL DARWIN: Indeed. It’s a very interesting policy line the Government have taken. Some of them did work in the ’80s. Some of them failed miserably. And again, what the Government have done this time is say that they’re going to focus on growth, growth-focused areas. What they mean by that is they’re going to put them in places like Alconbury, rather than in the middle of Blackburn or Burnley or places of that ilk.
ANDY GALL: But what kind of industry is it going to attract in the current climate?
NEIL DARWIN: At the moment we’ve been talking to Urban & Civic who own the site down there. They’re very keen to try and attract overseas business to the area. And there’s still plenty of demand for that, around some of the modern technologies that are coming forward. So biotech and all those sorts of things. So it’ll be interesting. From a Peterborough perspective it will be very interesting to see how it takes off. And actually the important thing for Peterborough residents is actually having, as Urban & Civic have described in the proposal, up to 6,000, 7,000 jobs. It’s having those jobs on the doorstep, because it’s actually very commutable from Peterborough. So there’s a real win-win there, in terms of having jobs on the doorstep.

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Tk-Maxx Jobs – The Final Figure

Tk_Maxx opens today on Bridge Street, at 9pm Thursday 26th May 2011, after being given £750,000 by Peterborough City Council to encourage them to come to Peterborough.
Here are some job forecasts for the store, together with the final figure for jobs created..
Continue reading “Tk-Maxx Jobs – The Final Figure”

The Whittle Shop in Whittlesford

08:24 Thursday 12th May 2011
Mid-Morning Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

ANDY HARPER: With Tesco getting the final go-ahead to open an Extra store in Great Shelford, some local people have voiced concerns that this will hit other local shops in the village very hard. At the same time, a village shop in neighbouring Whittlesford has just been reopened by Paul and Beverley Matthews, who’ve been running Falkner Stores in nearby Sawston for 25 years. So we wondered what goes to make a successful local shop. With this in mind, our reporter Suzi Roberts pumped along to Whittlesford to find out. (TAPE) Continue reading “The Whittle Shop in Whittlesford”