'Factory' site talks

Press, 11 May 1984, Page 4

'Factory' site talks

A vacant 10,000 sq ft building may be rented by the Christchurch City Council to provide spaces where small businesses can make a start. Details of the possible “nursery factory” site which would house small-enter-prise workshops were discussed in private by the employment promotion committee yesterday. Councillors were told that a building divided into 12 units, with partitioning already in place, was available. Funds for starting a small-enterprise workshop scheme could come from $30,000 proposed in the committee’s draft budget for this financial year. The council is still negotiating possible rental terms for the building. Cr Ronald Wright said that the council would face only a modest cost to try

such a scheme, even if the building was not full during the start-up period. Businesses in a workshop building would pay rent, but that would probably not cover true rental costs of the building. Their rent would also pay for a workshop manager and secretary. Seven suitable factories were inspected during the council’s nursery factory study. Most were suitable for workshops that would require rentals of between $2 and $2.80 a sq ft. Start-up workshops would provide a period of safe growth and experiment for small businesses, some of which would fail. In Britain, the British Steel Corporation and Scottish Development Agency have provided small-unit factory space in depressed areas of Scotland.

Of the firms that have initially used the workshops, 97 have gone out of busines, but 111 have shifted into independent premises. One finding of the British experience is that such nursery factories stimulated the rebirth of a manufacturing base in a depressed area. They created employment when larger firms were tending to lay off workers. Under the proposed Christchurch scheme, small businesses would be required to finance the low rental costs and supply their own equipment. They would be assessed by council officers, and should have the potential to shift into larger premises within two years. They should also be able to provide jobs for others.