Byker Grove is back...
Off to Lunch in Sunderland
Hello everyone and welcome to Off to Lunch…
You may be wondering, why I have led a newsletter about UK business news with a headline about Byker Grove? And why is the main photo the Wearmouth Bridge in Sunderland when Byker Grove is set in Newcastle? It’s because I am in Sunderland this week to learn about the regeneration projects in the city and last night I was at an event with film and TV producer Leo Pearlman where he announced the return of Byker Grove and spoke about a significant investment in Sunderland…
For those interested in more about the return of Byker Grove, you can find the announcement here…
Pearlman is from Sunderland and is the co-founder and managing partner of Fulwell 73 Productions, which is the company behind Sunderland ‘Til I Die, James Corden’s The Late Late Show, The Kardashians and films including I am Bolt. Fulwell 73 will also work on the reboot of Byker Grove with Mitre Studios.
Pearlman spoke at an event last night to promote Fulwell 73’s proposed Crown Works Studios project in Sunderland. This project is a new film studio on the banks of the River Wear. Fulwell 73 says it would create 8,500 jobs and generate £334 million for the local economy every year, bringing Hollywood films and high-profile TV shows to the north-east. Pearlman says that building Crown Works Studios would be “the proudest thing I have ever done”. Film and TV studies are supportive of the project. The industry is short of production space and Crown Works Studios can lower the cost of filming.
Fulwell 73 is working with property company Cain International on the development. Funding for the £450 million cost of construction is in place. However, Pearlman is looking for government support to get the project off the ground. Production companies will initially have to bring in staff from elsewhere to help with filming because it will take time to find and train-up new staff for the studio. Fulwell 73 is looking for tax breaks for the companies which bring in staff, which would cost an estimated £190 million over 10 years. Pearlman is due to have talks with the government over the next few weeks about securing this support. Crown Works Studios is currently going through the planning system but construction could start later this year.
In many ways this is exactly the sort of investment that the UK needs to level-up the economy outside London. It is a project that will create highly-skilled jobs. It is also a project in a fast-growing sector that the government has identified as a key opportunity for economic growth. But getting sign-off from the Treasury for a tax break like this is unlikely to be straightforward given the pressure on the public finances…
I will have a more in-depth piece for you about Sunderland and this project in the coming days. In the meantime, you can find out more about the Crown Works Studios proposals here
Other stories that matter…
1. There will soon be more empty offices across the UK than ever before according to new research from CoStar. This trend has been caused by the increase in home-working since the Covid-19 crisis, which has encouraged businesses to give up office space. There is currently 105 million sq ft of empty office space across the UK, up 68 per cent on the levels before the Covid-19 crisis started. This is equivalent to roughly 105 empty skyscrapers across the country. It means that 7.6 per cent of office space is vacant in the UK, up from 4.6 per cent pre-Covid. However, the amount of vacant space is expected to clear 130 million sq ft by next year, the most since CoStar started tracking data in 2009, which would mean a vacancy rate of more than 9 per cent. Story by The Times here
2. Supermarket group Morrisons is planning to close a fruit packing plant in Bradford, its home city, which has been open since 1976. 450 jobs are at risk. Story from the Telegraph & Argus here
3. Toyota says it has made a breakthrough on electric car battery technology and is now aiming to halve the size, cost and weight of batteries. Financial Times story here
4. Meta, the owner of Facebook, is launching a rival to Twitter on Thursday called Threads. You can find more details in a BBC story here
5. With the new Barbie film opening in cinemas later this month, The New Yorker has taken a fascinating look at how Mattel - the owner of the Barbie brand - is trying to shift from being a “toy-manufacturing company, making items, to an IP company, managing franchises”. The spark for this shift was the collapse of Toys R Us, the toy retailer, which led to a drop in sales of toys. According to the article, Mattel now regularly hosts film directors, producers and writers at its HQ in California as it tries to encourage them to make other films about its toys. Films about Hot Wheels and Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots are also on the way. This shift from Mattel could be the next example of a company successfully pivoting to a new direction - like Netflix moving from renting out DVDs to becoming a streaming service. However, it is risky - a similar attempt by rival Hasbro failed. You can read the full piece here
And finally…
I started my morning in Sunderland today with a gentle run along the beach at Seaburn. The beach here is truly one of the best beaches in the country, a hidden gem for those who don’t know about it. You can see it in the photo above (which was not taken by me)…
In May the beaches at Seaburn and Roker in Sunderland were awarded with Blue Flags and Seaside Awards, which recognises that they are among the cleanest and best beaches in the UK. More here
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Best
Graham