Achievements
Summary of Achievements from 1998 to date.
| Overall Jobs Created | 8664 |
| Business Start Up Programmes | |
|---|---|
| Individuals Trained | 1932 |
| New Business Start | 745 |
| Business Survival rate after 3 years as at Mar 2010 | 80% |
| Backing Business Programme | |
|---|---|
| Businesses Helped 2010 to date | 202 |
| Corporate Finance | |
|---|---|
| 107 Investment projects with businesses investing £61m in West Cumbria and creating/securing over 2900 jobs | |
| Inward Investment |
| 164 business assisted to locate in West Cumbria creating 3,978 new jobs |
History
West Cumbria Development Agency (WCDA) has its origins in the decision in 1982 by British Steel to cease steel-making in West Cumbria, with consequent dereliction and disuse of the Derwent Howe, Workington site, and the resulting 3,000 redundancies. An enterprise agency, called Moss Bay Enterprise Trust, was set up to help redundant steelworkers take up self-employment, with a property holding to be used as a managed workspace. Its area of operation was originally confined to the area directly around the steelworks in Workington.
In 1985, the last deep coal mine in West Cumbria, Haig Pit at Whitehaven, closed with 1,000 redundancies. The name of the organisation was changed to Enterprise West Cumbria, with additional support from Copeland and Allerdale District Councils, and a remit that extended throughout the two districts.
WCDA, part of West Cumbria Initiative (which became West Cumbria Partnership in 1992) was established in 1988 as a partnership between the public and private sectors, to redress the serious problems which would be faced following the completion of the THORP project at Sellafield, one of the largest construction projects in Western Europe. The key aim of the Initiative was to create the fullest possible level of employment through the regeneration of the economy, in the Boroughs of Allerdale and Copeland.
Initially established by Allerdale, Copeland, and the County Council and BNFL, the partnership consists of two integral parts, both private limited companies:
a) West Cumbria Development Fund, administering the £1.5 million put in annually by Sellafield Ltd (formally BNFL), the County, Allerdale and Copeland Councils.
b) WCDA, the executive arm with responsibility for business and industrial development, and inward investment.
West Cumbria Development Fund receives applications for funding from WCDA for clients requiring finance. Westlakes Properties is a subsidiary of the Fund and is responsible for the development of Westlakes Science and Technology Park.
WCDA has followed on from the good works of its predecessors, MOBET and Enterprise West Cumbria, aiming to help individuals and businesses create jobs. The ways in which it does this are detailed throughout this website.
Since 2009, with the designation of West Cumbria as “Britain’s Energy Coast™”, WCDA has aligned its business support activities to ensure they meet the aims and objectives of this initiative.
WCDA operates from offices at Moss Bay, Workington and at Westlakes Science
and Technology Park, two key employment sites. It also owns and manages
two Managed Workspaces, at Moss Bay and Thelkeld, near Keswick.
