Foreign Investment Brings Jobs Boost for Lancashire

Latest government figures show that foreign investment in Lancashire secured almost 2,000 new and safeguarded jobs in Lancashire in 2013/14. 

The figures, from UK Trade & Investment, the government department encouraging inward investment and helping UK firms trade overseas, show that there were a total of 27 successful Foreign Direct Investment projects in Lancashire in 2013/14, up from 14 in 2012/13. 

The Lancashire Enterprise Partnership and UKTI supported 14 of those projects, compared with eight in 2012/13. These supported projects secured 1370 jobs for the county, compared with 1281 in 2012/13. 

At the same time, 2013/14 saw a record number of inward investment projects in the UK as a whole! and the maintenance of the UK’s position as the number one destination in Europe for Foreign Direct Investment. In total, nearly 67,000 new jobs were created by foreign investment in 2013/14. 

Commenting on these figures, Edwin Booth, Chairman of the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership, said: 

"We know that Lancashire is a fantastic place to do business so it is great to see this confirmation that international investors agree with us. Through recent successes like the Lancashire Growth Deal, the Preston, South Ribble and Lancashire City Deal and the Growing Places Fund, the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership is creating the right conditions for businesses to grow so I am sure we will only see the amount of foreign investment in the county increase over the coming years." 

Analysing the figures shows that, of those projects recorded 12 (44%) were mergers and acquisitions/joint ventures; ten (37%) were expansions; four (15%) were new inv! estments and one (4%) was a retention. 

Successes were achieved from all geographic regions with 14 from Europe, the Middle East and Africa; nine from the Americas; and four from Asia Pacific. The total number of new or safeguarded jobs recorded in 2013/14 was 1820. 

The Lancashire Enterprise Partnership-supported successes were mainly in the Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing sector followed by Business, Professional and Financial Services. 

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