East London’s potential to drive future UK growth revealed
A fully regenerated east London could contribute an additional £21 billion a year to London’s economic wealth, economists claimed today.
The study by Oxford Economics also revealed that east London was responsible for creating 1 in every 4 new jobs in the capital and created more jobs over the past decade than Birmingham, Edinburgh, Leeds or Manchester. (Download the Oxford Economics report here)
But future wealth generation cannot be taken for granted, the study warns. With much of the area still ripe for development future growth will depend on continued public investment in infrastructure, improving skills to attract new business to the area as well as marketing its potential to inward investors.
A unique area of opportunity and regeneration, east London is the home to Canary Wharf, London City Airport and the ExCel international conference centre. At its southern point it takes in Stratford City and the Olympic Park. The Oxford Economics study looked at the regions longer term potential for growth through capitalising on public sector plans already in place.
The UK has enjoyed consistent employment growth since the early 1990’s with London outperforming the national average, growing by an average of 1.5% a year and creating 940,000 jobs. As a result its GVA growth also out performs the national average. East London has been an important factor in this accounting for 15% of London’s GVA. Indeed without this growth contribution the gap between London and the UK’s GVA growth would be halved.
Against the backdrop of London’s growing importance to the UK economy, east London has captured a growing share of the region’s economic activity. From generating 1 in 8 new jobs over a ten year period to 2000, east London accounted for 1 in every 4 new jobs created from 2000 to 2008. Over the same period east London created more jobs then Birmingham, Edinburgh and Manchester combined.
Looking forward the study claims the region has the potential to create an additional 180,000 jobs over the next 25 years with London benefiting from an additional 282,000 jobs and £21.4 billion GVA.
But reaping the benefits of east London’s potential to London and UK cannot be assumed, Alan Wilson at Oxford Economics and the author of the study said:
‘From our analysis, and the lessons learned from successful regeneration elsewhere, it’s clear that east London’s potential will not be achieved by the market alone. It’s perceived peripheral location and geography that comprises a number of local councils along with multiple land ownership – including in the public sector – are major barriers to pure market led development.’
Commenting on the report, Peter Andrews Chief Executive of the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation – the Government’s lead regeneration agency for east London that has a committed investment programme up to 2013 said:
‘Nowhere in London is there such an extraordinary package of development or the scale of both opportunity and land to accommodate significant growth. For London to remain a competitive world class city it’s going to be reliant on east London for a significant proportion of its jobs and housing growth. The 30 year commitment from Government was responsible for getting us here and it will need a similar long term commitment for the next 20 years to secure the real returns that are vital to the region and the UK as a whole. We look forward to supporting the arrival of the Mayoral Development Corporation which will simplify and accelerate the pace of regeneration in east London.’
Proving the vital role of the public sector in driving east London’s growth, LTGDC has secured £1bn of inward investment to the region over the last five years.
