Partnerships

In order to deliver on its regeneration aspirations, Tendring District Council must work with a number of external partners. These include:

Haven Gateway Partnership

The five Haven ports of Felixstowe, Harwich International, Harwich Navyard, Ipswich and Mistley represent the single most important cluster of ports in the UK. Based on their central role as hubs and generators of economic activity, the Haven Gateway Partnership provides a framework within which its partner organisations - from private and public sectors - can work together to promote economic opportunities and secure the future prosperity of the region.

Yet many felt that the Haven's national and global profile did not match its undoubted significance in the ports, transport and logistics sector - and the Haven Gateway Partnership set out to correct this.

The Partnership has agreed that its vision is:

To deliver a high quality environment for its residents, workers and visitors, by capitalising on its location as a key gateway, realising its potential for significant substantial growth, addressing its needs for economic regeneration, creating an additional focus for growth in hi-tech, knowledge based employment, related to the Cambridge clusters, and protecting and enhancing its high quality

Key priorities identified include:

• the upgrading of the A120 road to Harwich;
• improvements to the Felixstowe-Nuneaton rail track;
• setting up a sustainable ferry service linking Harwich, Felixstowe and Shotley;
• promotion of tourism, including attracting more cruise business to the subregion;
• training and education; and
• the provision of broadband access across the region

The South East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) - The Global Gateway

The South East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) was approved by the Coalition Government in November 2010. It exists to enable the conditions for business growth at a strategic level and encompasses East Sussex, Essex, Kent, Medway, Southend and Thurrock. 

It does this by bringing together leaders from business, local government and further and higher education to articulate the area’s strategic priorities and work in partnership to develop solutions to remove barriers to growth.

It is the largest strategic LEP in England and has a combined population of 3.9 million people, which is larger than any UK city region outside of London. It is home to over 130,000 businesses supporting over 1.3 million jobs and is a critical port and gateway area in the strategic location between London and European markets.　

Recognising that it will be the business and entrepreneurs that will create growth, their stated mission is to:

'Create the most enterprising economy in England'

The single goal for the LEP is to promote steady, sustained economic growth over the next two decades. In order to deliver this, the LEP Board has agreed four strategic objectives:

• secure the growth of the Thames Gateway
• promote investment in the coastal communities
• strengthen the rural community
• strengthen the competitive advantage of strategic growth locations

The Board has also identified four enabling activities in order to realise these objectives:

• Enabling activity 1: strategic transport infrastructure
• Enabling activity 2: universal fast broadband
• Enabling activity 3: skills
• Enabling activity 4: new financial instruments

The LEP's vision is that within the next 20 years:

• Established and new businesses across the area will have created between 250,000 and 300,000 new jobs. A further 760,000 people will live in the South East LEP area.
• The regeneration of the Thames Gateway itself will be largely complete. All the coastal and rural communities will aim to match the prosperity of our small cities and market towns. Formerly deprived areas will be making significant progress towards becoming thriving communities.
• GVA per head will exceed that for the south east as a whole; unemployment will be well below the average other prosperous European regions.
• The workforce will be known for its ‘can‐do’ and entrepreneurial attitude; offering skills and talents which compete with the best in Europe.
• Our universities will be global businesses in their own right, not only attracting high calibre ‘learners’ to the UK, but exporting intellectual excellence across the world.
• Every community across the LEP will be served by super‐fast (100 mbps or greater) broadband networks.
• A steady flow of public and private investment in strategic infrastructure, including improvements in our road and rail networks, sea ports and airports will ensure that businesses in the LEP benefit from even better connections to key global markets.

To understand the challenges faced across the LEP area, and to provide further background information, a factsheet of frequently asked questions has been produced.