East of England

The East of England will benefit from schemes announced in the Spending Review:

Growth

the creation of a UK-wide Green Investment Bank that will be funded by a £1 billion spending allocation and additional proceeds from the sale of Government-owned assets. The bank will encourage significant additional investment in green infrastructure – the East of England has an offshore wind farm industry;
the £1.4 billion Regional Growth Fund will support projects with significant prospects for sustainable private sector growth and provide support for people in areas which are currently dependent on the public sector;
£530m of investment in broadband, benefiting a total of around 2 million households, including in some of the most remote areas of the UK; and
Capital investment programmes in the East of England will concentrate new investment on infrastructure underpinning economic growth, and maintaining existing public assets:
- funding to continue for a new building at the Laboratory for Molecular Biology in Cambridge
- A11 – upgrading the remaining section to provide a continuous dual carriageway link between Norwich and the M11
- M1 – to relieve congestion and improve journey time reliability between Junctions 10 and 13

funding the increase in participation in education and training, benefiting 5.9 per cent of 16-18 year olds in the East of England that are not in Education, Employment or Training;
uprating of the Basic State Pension (BSP) by the highest of earning, prices or 2.5 per cent, from April 2011, benefiting around 1.1 million people in the East of England; and
above indexation increases in the child tax credit, funded by savings from restricting child benefit entitlement for households with a high rate taxpayer, potentially benefiting over 330,000 families in the East of England.

a settlement for local government that radically increases local authorities’ freedom to manage their budgets, resulting in greater control over £7 billion of grants; and
Community budgets will be run in 16 local areas, including Essex, from April 2011 for families with complex needs, to help improve outcomes, and reduce duplication and waste.

The Spending Review builds on the foundations for sustainable, balanced, private sector-led recovery set out in the Chancellor’s June Budget. The Budget announced a number of initiatives which will help build an economy that works for the East of England.