SPEAKER’S CORNER: ‘Our area is flourishing despite Dixons move’

Last month we had the news that after many years and following their merger with Carphone Warehouse Dixons were planning to leave their base in Maylands Avenue and move to West Acton to form a new headquarters for the merged business.
Councillor Andrew Williams, leader of Dacorum Borough CouncilCouncillor Andrew Williams, leader of Dacorum Borough Council
Councillor Andrew Williams, leader of Dacorum Borough Council

This is particularly disappointing as prior to the merger we had been working with Dixons to look at possible relocation within the Borough.

This disappointment should however be seen against the background of how successful we have and continue to be in attracting new businesses to the town as well as helping existing one to grow and flourish here.

Over the last few years we have been proactively encouraging new business and this has helped us secure such names as Britvic, Amazon, Palmer & Harvey and Royal Mail who have all opened new facilities creating over 1,500 new jobs for the area.

In the past year Henkel, a major international manufacturer, has built a new headquarters here with more than 150 staff consolidating on the site.

We have also seen other businesses re-establishing themselves and investing in their sites such as BSI, Eckoh and FFEI.

Many of these businesses have been attracted by our location and excellent transport links.

Other success stories include Gyron, a leading wholesale and managed service provider for medium-sized businesses based on Maylands, who have been expanding for many years.

They have opened their second premises on the business park and have recently started construction of a new headquarters which will include over 60,000 sq ft of offices as well as a large new datacentre.

Furthermore, we are currently reviewing planning applications for other new developments including major office builds for mixed use and a retail and housing development at the heart of Maylands.

Discussions are also currently progressing with other potential relocations that I hope will bring other well known brands and greater employment opportunities into the borough.

Our own business incubation units at the Maylands Business Centre continue to have full occupancy with a waiting list of businesses wanting space.

This week we start work on creating extra offices to allow more businesses to rent at the centre.

As well as space the centre also provides advice, support and training to help companies to grow.

We are investing over one million pounds in improvements to the public realm, with the first phase of work starting next year in Maylands to ensure that we continue to attract leading businesses and strong levels of investment in the future.

Alongside this our investment into the regeneration of Hemel Hempstead town centre will be another attraction for new businesses.

As the Hemel Evolution programme continues the care and retention of existing businesses remains extremely important to me and I am proud of how Dacorum is developing and excited that these developments will continue to show that the borough is an outstanding place to work, live and enjoy.