REGIONAL FOCUS > A Year of Progress
Published: Tuesday, 11 Mar, 2008
There has been huge progress since the last edition of Invest in Success. Take the recent announcement about Crossrail. When you consider that we want to create 180,000 new jobs in Thames Gateway, the capacity for an additional 50,000 extra jobs at Canary Wharf brought by Crossrail brings us a huge step towards reaching that target.
There has been huge progress since the last edition of Invest in Success. Take the recent announcement about Crossrail. When you consider that we want to create 180,000 new jobs in Thames Gateway, the capacity for an additional 50,000 extra jobs at Canary Wharf brought by Crossrail brings us a huge step towards reaching that target.
A year ago we said there were four crucial economic drivers necessary for the Thames Gateway to be a success. These were the Olympic Park at Stratford, Canary Wharf, London Gateway (the deep sea container port in Thurrock) and the other ports of the Thames Gateway and Ebbsfleet Valley: the heartbeats of the Gateway’s economy. The first and the last of which are being built around new High Speed 1 international rail stations at Ebbsfleet and Stratford. That new line has just opened this month, with domestic services following in 2009.
As I mentioned earlier, Crossrail is a huge boost to the Thames Gateway economy and will support the continued development of London’s primacy as a world centre for finance and business service activities. The stops at Woolwich and Abbey Wood are crucial centres of new housing and employment in the Thames Gateway. The station at Woolwich also offers the opportunity for a connection between Crossrail and the Docklands Light Railway.
It won’t surprise you to know that Thames Gateway is now confirmed as the strategic location for businesses dealing with London and the Capital cities of Western Europe. But there is still more to do.
At this year’s Thames Gateway Forum we will be the launching the Thames Gateway Delivery Plan. It will set out the work that must be done to ensure that the Thames Gateway fulfils its potential to add £12billion to the UK economy. It will identify the funding the Thames Gateway Executive will contribute to local and pan-Gateway projects in the next three years, cementing the key transformational projects that will unlock that private sector investment.
With the foundation of the new Thames Gateway Cross Government Board, to compliment the wider Thames Gateway Strategic Partnership, the coming year promises to be one of continued achievement and accelerated delivery in Thames Gateway.
Every day we are looking for ways to get more investors involved in the Gateway. There are plenty of opportunities for everyone. The challenge for us is to match the right investment to the right area of opportunity.
I am looking forward meeting that challenge in the years that follow.
Written by Thames Gateway chief executive Judith Armitt. Originally published in Invest In Success Thames Gateway 2008, page 9
<< Go Back
|
