Communities Secretary Eric Pickles MP has visited the AMRC to announce a new manufacturing-focused Enterprise Zone for the Sheffield City Region.

The Modern Manufacturing and Technology Growth Area (MMTGA) will cover the Advanced Manufacturing Park (home of the AMRC and new Nuclear AMRC) and other sites along the M1 in South Yorkshire.

Other key sites include the Sheffield Business Park at the former Sheffield city airport, land at Markham Vale to the south, and in the Dearne Valley to the north.

Enterprise Zone status means that businesses moving into the area benefit from special measures such as rate relief, a favorable planning regime, and super-fast broadband. The MMTGA is forecast to create 12,600 jobs and attract around 250 new advanced manufacturing and technology-based businesses to the area by 2015.

The Enterprise Zone project has been led by the Sheffield City Region Local Economic Partnership (LEP).

James Newman, chairman of the LEP (pictured with Pickles), said: "Enterprise Zone status represents a significant long-term investment in the Sheffield City Region's economy, and we're delighted to receive Government-backing for our proposal.

"To create jobs and economic growth, there needs to be investment in the sectors which present the biggest economic opportunity, and that's exactly what the Modern Manufacturing and Technology Growth Area will provide.

"It will build upon and accelerate the development of modern manufacturing in the Sheffield City Region, which already has one of the largest concentrations of this industry in the UK.

"It will also capitalise on growth sectors in which the City Region already has a competitive advantage, including low carbon industries, creative and digital, and medical technologies."

New Enterprise Zones were also announced for Leeds, Birmingham and Bristol.