By Nigel Horton-Baker, Chief Executive, REDA
While 2023 was definitely a positive year for the Reading economy, next year promises even more with the completion of a slice of Hollywood, the opening of One Station Hill and the delivery of major town centre housing developments among projects set to open.
All of which means more business, more visitors to the town and more job and training opportunities for local people.
But while there’s lots to look forward to, spare a thought for our colleagues working in retail and hospitality at the hardest month of the year following the boost that Christmas brings to retail.
Despite the economic turbulence still and the impact on us all, Christmas in Reading town centre was buoyant.
We invited visitors, residents and businesses to enjoy Christmas in Reading and you looked like you had a great time and our shops have reported really strong sales, which is so important given that the six weeks leading up to Christmas often account for up to 50% of annual profits.
The town centre felt busy and festive throughout the Christmas period with Christmas events, Christmas stalls and Christmas lights funded by Reading BID. We even had an impromptu busking session from Sam Ryder. And all this against a backdrop of financial struggles faced by many people in and around Reading,
High on REDA’s agenda for the start of 2024 is ensuring a positive vote for the continuation of our two business improvement districts (BID). The BIDs have generated over £5 million of investment in Reading town centre in the last five years, funding all the Christmas activity I mentioned, as well as business wardens, summer flowers, street cleaning, a cultural programme and dedicated services to support Reading’s night-time economy as well as recycling collection schemes.
Town centre businesses will be voting on our proposals for the next five years later this month.
Our plans for the next five years will see more wardens on the street keeping us safe, more events making the town centre an exciting place to be and more work on maintaining the pedestrian areas clean and welcoming.
South of the town centre, the final five of 18 film stages will be completed at Shinfield Studios this spring. Reading is becoming a major player in the international film, TV and production business with the most modern, production-friendly film and HETV studio facilities available in the UK. Great news for the hospitality sector in Reading and many other businesses who are interested in accessing the film production supply chain, as well as new training and job opportunities for local residents.
While the pandemic has undoubtedly altered working habits, in Reading there are promising indicators that the office market is alive and well with the demand for offices linked to increasingly high-quality environmental standards and a requirement for spaces to be flexible and promote staff interaction.
We work to attract new businesses to Reading but also, as importantly, ensure we retain our existing businesses here. The biggest new office block in Reading, One Station Hill, is due to be completed this year creating 15 floors of the highest environmental quality office space with more phases to follow. Green Park is also providing new top quality office space and, just before Christmas, they announced that global consulting and engineering company Wood would be relocating within Reading to Green Park in one of the UK’s largest office lettings of the year, keeping hundreds of jobs here.
Hugely exciting for Reading is the massive investment made by pharma company Lonza to purchase three buildings at Thames Valley Park with plans to create a new lab, manufacturing as well as office development, one of the largest developments in the region.
This decision demonstrates Reading’s potential for growing the laboratory sector here as Lonza joins other major pharma businesses like Bayer and Sanofi. Innovation of different sort – this time in the sky – will see Reading’s Altitude Angel launch the UK’s first super drone highway in Reading next summer.
A massive injection of town centre housing is also coming onstream to attracting skilled workers to the town, and offering a wider range of accommodation for people already based here.
Ebb & Flow on Friar Street and the completion of Berkeley Homes’ Huntley Wharf complete with dancing fountains, are all proving to be very popular especially with the younger generation looking for a first home. The Oracle, Broad Street Mall and the former Covea Insurance building all have redevelopment plans to provide more housing in the town centre.
Entrepreneurial spirit has driven the Reading economy since the days of Huntley & Palmer. It will drive us on in 2024. And, to paraphrase Ian Dury, there are lots of reasons to be cheerful for our town.
