A PIONEERING base for fledgling firms at Portsmouth’s Anglican Cathedral will be formally launched tomorrow (April 30) – as organisers reveal the initiative is to go national.

Damian Stadden, Orcun Adsoy and Jake Sims from Distinction Games outside their firm's base in the Cathedral Innovation Centre

The Cathedral Innovation Centre (CIC) was created last year by using spare office space to provide an environment for new firms to flourish. It was part of the cathedral’s response to the gloomy economic climate. Entrepreneurs were offered a package including desk space, start-up loans, administrative and marketing support, and mentoring from more experienced business people.

The centre is already full, with new businesses including a computer games firm, a catering company and a charity helping voluntary groups among those to have snapped up its 14 original spare desks.

Baroness Berridge, who announced the creation of the centre last May in the House of Lords, will officially open the centre tomorrow (April 30). Local politicians, dignitaries, church worshippers, business people and community leaders have been invited to the event. Among those attending will be Fareham MP Mark Hoban, the Minister of State for Work and Pensions.

At the event, worshippers, business people and members of the local community will be invited to become shareholders in the CIC in a ground-breaking community share flotation. The centre wants 2,000 people to invest £75 each to help these firms and future entrepreneurs to develop their businesses further. The benefit to investors is not just that their shares should make a profit, but also that investors will be able to apply to a Treasury scheme that can attract 50 per cent income tax relief.

The leaders of the CIC have also announced they have access to £250,000 more start-up funds for those from further education colleges, universities and young enterprise networks who are looking to launch a business across the Solent and Wessex region. It is looking for applicants for free office facilities and mentoring, based in spare church and community buildings in Southampton and elsewhere.

At the launch, a parliamentary and public policy programme will also be unveiled as part of the CIC’s commitment to civic as well as economic recovery.  This will kick off with a parliamentary seminar on June 21 with MP Jon Cruddas, who is heading up the Labour party’s policy review. It will continue with special events at the autumn party conferences and nationally with the think tanks Localis, Res Publica and the Helen Suzman Foundation.

The Cathedral Innovation Centre and movement is based at Cathedral House in St Thomas’s Street, behind the cathedral, and also at the Royal Naval Club and Royal Albert Yacht Club in nearby Pembroke Road.

Among the fledgling firms to have found a home in the CIC is Distinction Games, which creates software and computer games. It was originally created by friends studying at the University of Portsmouth.

Director Orcun Adsoy said: “I came to look round and was given two business contacts before I’d even signed up to be part of the centre. The group running the CIC are incredibly well-connected, the rent was incredibly low, and the location beautiful – we can see across the Solent from our window.

“The area is good and the people are nice, which is very motivating. And it’s great to be able to call on business mentors as well. The CIC are helping to cover our costs to become a limited company.”

Among the other firms based at the CIC are Yellow Kite, a social enterprise that runs cafes at Southsea Castle, the D-Day Museum and Fratton Community Centre; and the charity Community Action in Portsmouth, which helps voluntary groups in the city with advice on everything from their constitutions to finding funding.

A new firm, the Inspiration Foundation, has been set up by teacher Danny Glavin as part of the CIC. He was inspired by the sacrifice of his friend Richard Hollington, the 300th British serviceman to die in Afghanistan, to raise money for military charities. He created the idea of a ‘Heroes Day’, where schoolchildren could be sponsored to dress as their heroes. He has created this new charity to promote positive leadership, citizenship and social responsibility among young people.

“The support and input the CIC has given, and will continue to give, will provide a solid platform from which I can fulfil my ambition to build a national charity,” he said.

The Cathedral Innovation Centre was created last year as a partnership between Portsmouth Cathedral, the University of Portsmouth’s Business School, Roman Catholic diocese, and the Royal Society of Arts. It aimed to recruit 50 mentors from across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight to give advice on all sorts of aspects of business – management, recruitment, marketing, human resources and so on. Worshippers from our churches and others have already volunteered.

Francis Davis, Director of the Cathedral Innovation Centre, said: “Before being launched, the Innovation Centre is full and has a waiting list. For a total cost of £9,000, it has opened 14 start-up desks. In kind pledges to date exceed hundreds of thousands of pounds.

“The Cathedral Innovation Centre, though small, provides not only an alternative model for the Church’s sense of social responsibility after the ‘Occupy’ demonstrations at St Paul’s, but also harnesses new investors, mentoring networks and off-civic balance sheet property to unlock economic inclusion.”

For more information, contact Francis Davis on 07799 711083 or francistdavis@gmail.com, or see www.cathedralinnovationcentre.com.