South: Thames Valley Berkshire LEP reveals plans for £137m investment in the region

The Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) today held an important meeting to update stakeholders and the public on its Strategic Economic Plan to invest £137 million of Local Growth Funds, EU Structural Funds and Growing Places Funds to drive economic growth in the sub region. Overall the deal will create up to 17,000 jobs, 12,000 homes and leverage a further £20m in public and private investment.

The key features of the deal are:

• Delivery of an unprecedented series of major infrastructure investments in the national road and rail network serving the sub region’s economy – together worth approximately £5 billion. These include the Reading Railway Station upgrade; Great Western electrification; new Super Express trains for Inter-City rolling stock; Crossrail; Western Rail access to Heathrow, and Smart Motorways for M3 J2-4 and M4 J3-12. A package of road and public transport investments to improve connectivity and reduce journey times across the area.
• Delivery of a new railway station at Green Park in Reading, as well as improvements at Maidenhead station.
• Delivery of Public Transport Rapid Transit schemes in Slough and Reading, and park and ride in East Reading.
• Delivery of National Cycle Route NCN 422 and new facilities on the A4 Maidenhead to Slough.
• Delivery of 'pinch-point' funding of nearly £17m (2013-2015) for key infrastructure sites in Reading, West Berks, Wokingham, Bracknell and Maidenhead as well as at M4 J10.
• Delivery of 12,000 new homes and access roads in Newbury, Wokingham and Bracknell.
• Delivery of Superfast Broadband within the sub region – 95% coverage by 2017.
• Delivery, with partners, of the Thames Valley Science Park.
• Delivery of three new ‘Solutions Labs’, which will equip young people with science, technology, engineering and maths skills needed to support the tech-focused business base and the new Thames Valley Science Park. It will also bring businesses, FE Colleges and students together to shape curricula so that they are aligned with the needs of tech-based businesses.
• Delivery of a Thames Valley Berkshire Business Growth Hub, which has already engaged with 115 businesses and committed grants of £340,000 to 19 businesses, as well as a Funding Escalator of £7.3m consisting of commercialisation and expansion loan schemes – already circa £2m of funding approved across 30 companies.

The Thames Valley Berkshire Growth Deal is part of a £12b long-term programme to revitalise local economies. The deals are the latest example of the British economy being locally built and delivered.