An £8.3 million investment package to attract high growth companies to the Solent Enterprise Zone at Daedalus has moved a step closer as Fareham Borough Council agreed to the terms of a £3m loan from the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

The council has already secured an agreement from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) to invest £5.3m in the development of an innovation centre to provide space for start-up companies. The facility will have close links with Fareham College's new Centre of Excellence for Advance Engineering Skills Training (CEMAST) which is due to open in September 2014. It will be housed in a new 25,000 sq ft building with office space and workshop facilities.

-- Advertisement --

Additionally, the Solent LEP has offered a £3m loan from its Growing Places Fund to support the provision of new hangar space on the north west part of the Enterprise Zone for aviation and aerospace industries and improve the airfield and resurface the runway.

The investment package is expected to create 495 jobs, with completion expected in spring 2015.

Colin Molton, the HCA's Executive Director for the South and South West, said: "Our agreement to invest in this project is an integral part of the package to bring a new innovation centre, jobs and improvements to the Solent Enterprise Zone at Daedalus. It is good to see local partners leading this project which is another clear sign that progress is being made. We will work in tandem with our partners to ensure that this encouraging progress continues."

(CD/MH)