Local economy

Newark and its surrounding area has been an important economic centre for hundreds of years.

Local economy

The area has been recognised nationally as a hotspot for growth.

Economic development here is already built on solid foundations. The area is home to more than 8,000 businesses and has a growing reputation as a centre for logistics, data management and environmental industries - and Newark is home to KnowHow's national distribution centre.

Other key sectors include engineering (NSK, Flowserve and Hoval), ICT (Timico and Vodafone), food and drink (Laurens and Daloon) and tourism (Center Parcs and Sherwood Pines).

Employment

Of the 70,200 full-time and part-time jobs in the district, service industries make up nearly half the total (32,400), with distribution, hotels and restaurants employing 11,200 people, manufacturing 6,600 and finance and IT sector making up 4,800 further jobs.

Employment levels at 76.6 per cent are 3.3 per cent higher than the national average.

Continuing development

Newark and Sherwood District Council have designated 80 acres as land for commercial and commercial building development.

Three sites have been identified in Newark alone to provide 7,000 new homes and 250,000 sqm of new employment floorspace.

The growth in the area's prosperity is fuelling growth in the district as a whole with 14,000 new homes in the pipeline in the next two decades.

Transport links

The town's geographical location and excellent transport links make it an ideal location for business.

A staggering 70% of the UK population are within three hours' drive from Newark, with easy access to the A1 and the recently-dualled A46 offering fast access to Nottingham, Lincoln and Leicester, and on to the M1 and M6.

The road network offers good routes to the East Coast ports including Immingham, Grimsby and Hull - all within just 90 minutes.

The rail connections from Newark are also excellent with travel times to London in one hour and 30 minutes, and there are six international airports within a two hour drive.