Leicestershire's Mipim budget halves

The team in charge of marketing Leicestershire to the world's property developers at a major industry event will spend almost half the public funds they did last year.

Nick Carter, chairman of economic development agency Prospect Leicestershire, who is leading the delegation, said the county's presence at next week's Mipim world property fair would be significantly smaller than in 2009.

This year the team will spend just under £30,000 on the four-day exhibition, which takes place in Cannes, in the south of France, from Tuesday. Last year, when three events were held, the bill came to £57,000. The delegation, which is being sponsored by architecture firm Pick Everards, city consultants MDA and London law firm Pinsent Masons, will also include Prospect Leicestershire chief executive David Hughes and two other members of the agency.

Mr Carter said the main focus would be finding developers for the second phase of the new business quarter next to Leicester railway station, which would accommodate more than 2,000 jobs.

"We are going over there with the new business quarter as our main proposition," he said.

"It's very important that Leicester and Leicestershire are represented there. It gives the opportunity to talk to people who would otherwise be very difficult to bring together in one place. This is the place where property and development companies gather. It's a very good way for us make new contacts."

Prospect will host an event on Wednesday evening, where the guest speaker will be Tom Nathan, the man who oversaw the opening of the £350m Highcross Leicester shopping centre.

He will talk about what attracted the centre's developer, Hammerson, to invest in the city.

"He will be able to talk about how it was made successful because of the support of partnerships that are in the city and county," said Mr Carter. "We want to show prospective developers how smoothly major projects can go here."

He added: "We are spending significantly less than last year. It will come in at under £30,000. We think it's probably the most cost-effective expedition we have had to Mipim.

"We have reduced the number of people and reduced the number of events down to one. We have partnered with other counties in the region to share the cost of having events at Mipim."