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Enviro21 news

28 January 2011

East Sussex asks Government for £7m for new Hastings developments

Organisations across East Sussex have backed a bid for £7 million from the Government’s ‘Regional Growth Fund’ to support two large development projects in Hastings.

Economic development company Sea Space has submitted the bid with the support of all the county’s local authorities and many of its prominent businesses. If successful, the funding will enable Sea Space to undertake significant new development in Hastings’ Priory Quarter business district and at the Enviro21 Innovation Park.

The Regional Growth Fund is £1.4 billion which the Government has made available nationwide over three years to boost private sector enterprise. The funding East Sussex has requested would be invested as:

  • £5m towards a £25m project to develop a further 6,300m2 (67,800 sq ft) of offices in Hastings’ Priory Quarter town centre business district. This would accommodate 500 new jobs. It would build on the success to-date of Priory Quarter, which has attracted high quality employers including Saga Insurance, which opened for business this month with plans to create 800 jobs.
  • £2m towards a £10m scheme to create six further business units on the South Queensway Enviro21 Park—the new sustainable business park on the outskirts of Hastings. This additional 4,400m2 (47,300 sq ft) of development would accommodate over 200 new jobs and join the first four business units which Sea Space created last year.

These two projects were agreed by all organisations involved to be the county’s highest priority schemes which are ready to be put into action if the bid is successful. In both cases, the 80% balance of funding would come from bank finance.

Councillor Peter Jones, Leader of East Sussex County Council, comments: “Our bid has been an enormous team effort and we’re proud to have put forward such deserving projects. Both fit perfectly with the Government’s strategy to reduce areas’ dependency on the public sector by boosting the commercial economy and private sector jobs.”

Councillor Jeremy Birch, Leader of Hastings Borough Council, says: “In attracting Saga and others to the town in recent months, we’ve shown that we can get big results in our work to strengthen the commercial sector. The new schemes for which Sea Space has submitted a funding bid would give a huge further lift to Hastings and the surrounding area.”

The Government’s response to bids to the Regional Growth Fund is expected later this spring. The Fund will be opened for a second round of bids later this year.

Notes to editors:

The local authorities which supported the East Sussex bid are: Eastbourne Borough Council, East Sussex County Council, Hastings Borough Council, Lewes District Council, Rother District Council and Wealden District Council.

The bid was also supported by local companies Beaming, Drallim, General Dynamics and Plastipack, and by business support organisations Business Link, EDEAL, Hastings’ Chamber of Commerce, Locate East Sussex, Ten Sixty Six Enterprise and The Institute of Directors.

Sea Space is the economic development company for Hastings, Bexhill and the wider East Sussex area. It is working on behalf of its public and private sector partners to deliver a long-term, £400m economic development programme for the area.

For more media information, comment and images, contact:

Tariq Khwaja from TK Associates
T: 01932 224 121
E: tariq.khwaja@tk-associates.com

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