WITH half of the UK’s working population employed by small and medium-sized enterprises, it’s little wonder that the Base Bordon Innovation Centre is considered such an important part of the town’s regeneration.

The business enterprise hub, at the former Broxhead House officers’ mess on Barbados Road at Louisburg Barracks, offers workspace to small and medium-sized companies, with on-site mentoring also available in an atmosphere of innovation, entrepreneurship and collaboration, thus helping businesses to become established and grow.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have driven more than 70 per cent of private-sector employment growth in the UK since 2011 and, as of last year, employed 15.7million people (almost half of the working population in the UK), according to research by Npower Business and Capital Economics.

Officially launched in March this year, the £4million Base Bordon Innovation Centre will generate more than 230 jobs in the town in leading-technology, high-value sectors, according to its operator Oxford Innovation.

East Hampshire District Council, which is managing the £1billion town regeneration, has long aimed for a target of 5,500 new jobs to be created in Whitehill and Bordon by 2030.

The 15-year regeneration scheme is a flagship project for the council which, from the outset, has placed job creation as a top priority, with new business space being provided, as housing is built, to ensure the future success of the town.

An estimated 3,350 new homes will have been built in the 15 years between 2015 - when the Army relocated from the town to Wiltshire, releasing barracks sites for development - and 2030.

At the time of its launch, the Base centre already had 12 businesses working out of its 34 offices.

Firms located at Base today include website builder Real Life Digital; child-education website Teach Talk Learn; money-management firm QBick; software firms Twenty6Developments and Ab Initio; space-industry company In-space Missions; Chord Event (which offers temporary structures for live events); consultancy firm Torsion and photography and video firm Neve Studios.

The Base project was delivered by Homes England, supported by the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and East Hampshire District Council.

Enterprise M3 is a business-led Local Enterprise Partnership (one of 38 in England) working to secure sustainable, private-sector economic growth at a sub-national level - in this case in the M3-corridor area.

Homes England (a public body that funds new, affordable housing) has granted a 10-year lease to Oxford Innovation to manage Base.

Based in Oxford, Oxford Innovation manages 24 innovation centres across the UK.

The former Ministry of Defence-owned Louisburg Barracks was acquired by Homes England in 2013 to kick start the wider regeneration of Whitehill and Bordon.

The vision with Base has been to create a “base” for up-and-coming entrepreneurs in Hampshire, with on-site training, networking and nurturing helping their fledgling and small businesses to become established, grow and excel.

Business-support and mentoring services include: strategic, innovation and financial planning; advice on leadership, management and talent management; help with finding new customers and growing sales; guidance on exit strategies; one-to-one business coaching and workshops.

The hub’s innovation director Richard May has been praised by the chief executive of QBick, at Base, Phil Warrener, who said: “Richard is an extremely well connected and enthusiastic innovation director. He has a great breadth of knowledge and has great ideas how to move a business forward with a real can-do attitude.”

Also available to help at Base are centre manager Myf Plunkett and assistant centre manager Clare Clark.

Offices are available to rent from £699 per month (for four people), and a communal area for entrepreneur working - enabling sharing and collaborating, and with unlimited tea and coffee - costs £55 per month. As well as offices, there are meeting and conference rooms (for up to 16 people) that can be hired from £20 per hour.

The district council’s portfolio-holder for Whitehill and Bordon, Ferris Cowper, said: “We promised that our 21st-century town would respect and retain as many of its historical buildings as possible. The former officers’ mess in Broxhead House has always been an iconic local landmark and it is great that it has been given a new lease of life, bringing high value jobs back into the heart of the area.”

Broxhead House was built by Admiral Fitzalan Foley in 1877, and Louisburg Barracks was created from about 1900 to house field artillery regiments.