It has long been established that without the necessary infrastructure, economic growth is hindered. A key part of Vemco’s work involved identifying what was needed to unlock growth. One such scheme was a proposal to widen the A13 through Thurrock at a cost of £90million. Our preliminary work identified that this investment in the road improvement would:
• return £2.20 for every £1 invested;
• unlock the potential for an additional 11,000 jobs and 4,150 homes – on top of those already identified in the Thames Gateway South Essex programme of the SEP; and
• unlock £10.7m in private sector leverage.
The A13 links key port infrastructure of Tilbury and London Gateway and is vital for sustaining growth in the south east of England and a lack of investment in the A13 could impede growth across the region and potentially across the wider UK economy.
Recognising the strategic importance of the route to the UK economy, Vemco developed a lobbying strategy for the purpose of calling on Government to provide South East LEP with £80 million to undertake a widening of the A13 through the Local Growth Fund. The outstanding £10 million would be met from private sector contributions. At the time, the A13 growth corridor already benefited from major planned and committed private investments at London Gateway (£1.5bn), Thames Enterprise Park (£1bn), Lakeside (£1bn), Purfleet (£600m) and Canvey Gateway (£110m).