YARMOUTH AND WAVENEY ENTERPRISE ZONE

Thousands of jobs are expected to be created now Great Yarmouth and Waveney has gained enterprise zone status from the Government.

Areas within the zone – one of 11 announced on August 17th 2011 - will benefit from simplified planning rules, superfast broadband and tax breaks for new businesses. The designated areas in the two towns are:

South Denes, Great Yarmouth
Beacon Park, Gorleston
Mobbs Way, Oulton Broad
PowerPark and Outer Harbour, Lowestoft
Riverside Road, Lowestoft
South Lowestoft Industrial Estate
Ellough Business Park, Beccles

GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY

The bid for enterprise zone status, which focused on the sub-region’s strong energy industry, was submitted by the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) for Norfolk and Suffolk which said it provided “a golden opportunity to capitalise on the huge growth potential offered by the energy sector to create thousands of new jobs.”

The zone will cover more than 121 hectares of development-ready land in Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft – enough to accommodate at least 540,000 square metres of new commercial floor space.

The LEP expects to see about 80 businesses in the zone by 2015, 60 as a result of expansion and 20 coming from inward investment. It forecasts 9,000 new jobs by 2025.

BUSINESS BENEFITS

The Government said enterprise zones will benefit from:

• A 100% business rate discount worth up to £275,000 over a five year period for businesses that move into an enterprise zone during the course of this Parliament.
  
  
• All business rates growth within the zone for a period of at least 25 years to be retained and shared by local authorities in the LEP area to support their economic priorities.
  
  
• Help from the Government and local authorities to develop radically simplified planning approaches.
  
  
• Government support to roll out superfast broadband by guaranteeing a supportive environment and, if necessary, public funding.

News of the enterprise zone came hard on the heels of an announcement that Norfolk and Suffolk would received more than £27million of Government money to improve broadband connections.