Thames Valley: LEP awarded £35m to spend on connectivity

Thames Valley Berkshire LEP has reacted positively to the government’s decision to award the LEP £35.56m in the latest round of Local Growth Fund (LGF) bidding. The funding will be invested into seven projects focused on enhancing connectivity across Berkshire; the prioritisation of these schemes was derived from a forward planning process, lasting over a year.

A key theme in the Growth Deal proposal was the importance of fast, reliable and comfortable intra-urban connectivity, particularly to connect peripheral employment and housing areas to the town centres and main public transport nodes. Without such connectivity, Berkshire’s towns will not continue to attract and retain people to live and work within them; they will not act as an effective counter-magnet to London and the economic potential of the area will not be realised.

The Berkshire economy boasts the highest proportion of foreign-owned businesses of all LEP areas. The LEP has now secured over £142m of LGF from government to invest in Berkshire. This, coupled with the area’s European funding allocation and the LEP’s Growing Places Fund, amounts to an investment programme of nearly £180m up to 2020. The LEP says such investment will send a strong and positive message to companies; their retention is more critical than ever to secure the economic contribution they make to the UK and to sustain the supply chain they share with other, smaller businesses.

Dr Phillip Lee, MP, commented: “I welcome the focus of Growth Deal 3 on connectivity, both through creating a ‘Smart City’ cluster in Bracknell, Reading and Newbury, and improving the A3095 Corridor. Thames Valley Berkshire is already the UK’s most productive area, as well as its most technologically advanced. Embracing digital connectivity and improving existing infrastructure are vital to increasing this productivity further, and I am pleased to see that the Growth Deal demonstrates substantial investment in both areas.”

Peter Read, chairman of Thames Valley Berkshire LEP, said: “This is a positive Growth Deal for Berkshire. The deal we proposed was predicated on supporting the vital connectivity of an area that generates £34 billion Gross Value Added to the national economy each year and which is one of only four areas of the country that scores highly on measures of both economic prosperity and social inclusion. This is surely in line with the Prime Minister’s ambition to have ‘an economy that works for everyone’.”