Gateway Digital - July Edition

Here comes the summer…

This month saw Communities and Local Government and Homes and Communities Agency jointly release the Thames Gateway annual report for 2008/2009. It slipped out largely unnoticed, with no fanfare, and has been hitherto unreported in the media.

The upbeat progress report highlights the continued £3bn annual investment by the Government in jobs, housing and infrastructure, which it says are helping the region to not only weather the current recession but is also helping the Gateway play a key role in the recovery of the Greater South East and the UK as a whole.

Writing in the report’s foreword, Shahid Malik MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and Minister for the Thames Gateway explains that despite the tough times, it is better to keep investing in growth and jobs in order to speed recovery. “This is why,” he says “it is even more important to remain focussed on the Thames Gateway’s strengths and immense potential, and to invest properly in its future.”

And that is a sentiment echoed by Sir Robin Wales, Mayor of Newham, who in announcing the appointment of Bouygues as preferred development partner for its £500M Canning Town scheme said: “Despite the slow down in the economy, pushing forward with the development of key infrastructure with our partners is one crucial way of kick starting the local economy and providing jobs for the local community.”

The CLG/HCA annual report also highlights the previously unchampioned fact that job creation in the Gateway between 2001 and 2007 was four times that for the greater South East as a whole. Now that really is something worth shouting about.

Malik believes the achievements of the last year “reflects the sustained and substantial progress” that has been made since the Prime Minister launched the Delivery Plan at the Thames Gateway Forum in November 2007.

Progress over the last year, he says, “builds on the significant achievements that have come before, laying the foundations for the major existing and future private sector investment needed to transform the Gateway.” We couldn’t agree more.

You can download the report from the CLG website, or simply click here.

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