Enterprise Zones proposed across England

[Hannah Bell]

Amongst the generous handouts to big business outlined in last month’s Conservative-Liberal Democrat government’s 2011-12 budget were proposals for the introduction of 21 new Enterprise Zones across England.

The zones, expected to be concentrated in small areas of 50 to 150 hectares, will provide start-up businesses, or those relocating before 2015, with access to a 100 percent discount on business rates, a deregulated planning application process, capital allowances, as well as super-fast broadband Internet connectivity.

A number of locations have already been confirmed, including Boots Campus in Nottingham, Liverpool Waters in Merseyside, the Royal Docks in London, and Manchester Airport. In addition, Birmingham and Solihull, Sheffield, Leeds, the Bristol area, the Black Country, Derby and Teesside and the North East, have been granted permission to establish zones. The remainder will be announced this summer following a competitive bidding process.

The coalition anticipates that Enterprise Zones, along with other concessions, such as its plans to slash corporation tax by 5 percent, or £4.2 billion, by 2014-15, will attract significant global investment and generate hubs for high-tech, high-knowledge industries.... The zones are to be managed by Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), which were set up by the coalition government last June to replace Regional Development Agencies (RDAs)... To encourage the wholesale dismantling of the public sector, Enterprise Zones are being targeted at some of the most impoverished regions—inner London boroughs and de-industrialised areas of the north of England—where the state accounts for a larger proportion of employment and economic activity.


http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/apr2011/zone-a26.shtml