NEWS > Gateway to recovery
Published: Wednesday, 17 Mar, 2010
The London Thames Gateway is set to outperform other UK regions once recovery resumes, an independent report published 15 March 2010 reveals, making it the right time and place to invest. Jones Lang LaSalle
The London Thames Gateway is set to outperform other UK regions once recovery resumes, an independent report published 15 March 2010 reveals, making it the right time and place to invest. Jones Lang LaSalle’s ‘London Thames Gateway: Inward Investment Progress and Prospects’ reports that London and the South East will see stronger growth, and in east London particularly, regional economy drivers Stratford City, Canary Wharf and Crossrail will help sustain it further.
The London Thames Gateway area – made up of the London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Newham, Greenwich, Hackney, Havering and Barking and Dagenham – will see an increase in economic output. Gross Value Added (GVA) for the area is anticipated to grow at a rate of 8.2% between now and 2013 – three times faster compared to the UK as a whole. The report’s findings also conclude that in the London Thames Gateway:
- Employment is forecast to rise by 5% over the same period to 2013 compared to a decline in the UK as a whole of 1.7%. - Increases in financial and business services employment driven by Canary Wharf account partly for the rise but emerging commercial centres in the area, which are increasing their offer to inward investors, have also contributed to the upward trend.
- Inward investment to the region has remained buoyant with companies such as Closed Loop Recycling, Thames Gateway Power, Telehouse, Axill Europe and the China Construction Bank Corporation locating to the area.
- The area’s total returns in the second quarter of 2009 were stronger than the UK as a whole (-0.5% against -2.2 %) suggesting a positive performance in the next quarter.
- Proximity to London, cheaper land values and access to the major south east ports mean that the region remains the leading light for industrial and distribution sectors.
- Rental values in the London Thames Gateway have been stable in comparison – a fall of -0.1% between June 2007 to June 2009 compared to falls of -1.7% for all UK industrial assets and -4.9% for all UK commercial property. Substantial corrections in retail yields, the transformation of the retail offer and the wide ranging regeneration projects and planned increase in population, suggest that the market is undervalued relative to others.
Commenting on the publication of the report, Peter Andrews, Chief Executive of the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation, said: “Although we need to guard against premature sightings of the green shoots of growth, there’s encouragement in the fact that the resilience and sustainable growth of the region is linked to the economic drivers in the area and the long term regeneration programme we are leading.”
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