Press Release | 23/09/2022
- The East Midlands is set to benefit from 5 of the 38 of the Conservative Government’s new Investment Zones to get their local economies growing across the region.
- Investment Zones will benefit from tax breaks and planning freedoms to make them more attractive to businesses and investors – creating jobs and business opportunities in the local area.
- Brendan Clarke-Smith MP has welcomed the news and urged local leaders to work with the Conservative Government to secure these opportunities for local residents and businesses.
Brendan Clarke-Smith MP has welcomed the news that the East Midlands could benefit from East Midlands new Investment Zones, announced in the Conservative Government’s Growth Plan, to benefit from streamlined planning rules and time limited tax cuts to boost growth in areas that need it most.
Under this brand-new initiative, each Investment Zone will offer generous, targeted and time-limited tax cuts for businesses, backing them to increase productivity and create new jobs. This could encourage investment in new shopping centres, restaurants, apartments and offices, helping regenerate local high streets and communities across the whole region.
Investment Zones will also benefit from liberalised planning rules to release more land for housing and commercial development, and reforms to increase the speed of delivering development. Time-consuming negotiations between councils and developers for each project over affordable housing will be scrapped. This will be replaced with a set percentage of affordable homes, while making sure communities get the infrastructure they want and need.
Investment Zones will only be established with support from local leaders, with the Conservative Government working in partnership with local authorities to deliver benefits for local residents, as well as devolved Administrations and councils in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Commenting, Brendan Clarke-Smith MP said:
“Too often development and investment is prevented or delayed by lengthy planning processes – this is wrong and needs to be overcome if we are serious about economic growth.
“That is why I welcome that the East Midlands has been selected as the home of 5 of the 38 new Investment Zones and becoming a hub for growth, as the Government slashes red tape and incentivises investment to increase productivity and create jobs in our local community.
“By investing in the infrastructure our country needs and reducing the cost of doing business, we are creating jobs and opportunities across the East Midlands and laying the foundations for a strong, competitive, economy.”
Commenting, Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng said:
“To support growth right across the country, we need to go further, with targeted action in local areas to unleash the power of the private sector.
“That’s why we will cut taxes, with businesses in Investment Zones enjoying the benefit of generous tax reliefs.
“And we will liberalise planning rules in specified agreed sites, releasing land and accelerating development to unleash the potential for growth in these communities.”
ENDS
