Mr Jackson visited the centre to talk to some of the tenants, and to see how the city is supporting start-up and small environmental companies to grow and commercialise their technologies.

Peterborough is home to the largest cluster of environmental technology businesses in the UK – 370 companies in total, and the new centre, opened in April, supports the creation of many new hi-tech companies and jobs in Peterborough and beyond.

Phase one of the centre comprises 13 offices, ranging from one to five desks, hot-desks, and a number of meeting rooms and a boardroom which can be hired by tenants, or others, for meetings/seminars/workshops and the like.

Equally important are coffee and whiteboard areas where tenants can interact (proving one of the most valuable aspects of the centre).

The Eco Innovation centre also hosts virtual tenants, who can give the centre as their address, and have their telephone calls redirected, and other services.

The centre is now more than half full, and use of the meeting rooms is accelerating among environmental organisations, and by the tenants themselves. There are plans for a second phase, which may be housed in a purpose-built building, perhaps in the Green Quarter.

The Centre for Sustainable Engineering (CSEng) manages the centre on behalf of Peterborough Council, and provides weekly surgeries, informal breakfast meetings and brown bag lunches, and more formal seminars/workshops.

The centre should be more than just a building, however, and CSEng wishes to develop it into a reference centre of distinctive expertise on technology and practices in relation to the low carbon agenda, as well as a focal point for Government, especially Defra/Department for Energy and Climate Change, and companies engaged in cleantech innovation enterprise.