An ‘investment zone’ intended to supercharge economic growth in Britain is set to be created in Norfolk, the government has confirmed.
The county, along with neighbouring Suffolk, is among 38 areas across England to have been invited to form an investment zone.
Within the area covered by it, which will only be part of each county, taxes will be lowered and regulation lightened, to encourage businesses to prosper.
Planning laws will meanwhile be relaxed in a ring of land around the edge of the zone, to enable more homes to be built and workers to live close to the benefiting employers.
At his mini-budget on Friday, chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng specifically mentioned Norfolk as one of the planned locations for the zones, along with the Tees Valley, the West Midlands and the Bristol-centred West of England area.
While Norfolk County Council (NCC) refused to confirm where the zone is planned to go, it is understood that the so-called ‘Cambridge-Norwich Tech Corridor’, encompassing towns like Wymondham, Attleborough and Thetford, is the favoured location.
The area is already home to a wealth of high-tech industries and partly falls within prime minister Liz Truss’s South West Norfolk constituency.
In a statement echoing Ms Truss’s Conservative leadership campaign slogan of “deliver, deliver, deliver”, NCC’s Tory leader Andrew Proctor said: “Norfolk can deliver.
“This is our message to the new government today after being identified in plans to encourage national and local growth through Investment Zones.
“Delivering these plans through local authorities, including Norfolk County Council, could see strong and ambitious growth in Norfolk with potential tax incentives and accelerated development initiatives making Norfolk an even more attractive area to invest in.
“It’s early days in conversations with government and once we receive further clarity, our first step will be to engage with, collaborate with and develop plans with partners in other councils, businesses and other agencies to clearly demonstrate that we can all work better together for Norfolk.”
A Suffolk County Council spokesman stressed that talks about a zone in their county were still at a “very early stage”. They too declined to say which specific places were being considered for a zone.
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