Theme 1
GROWTH, REGENERATION AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Aim: Unlocking and enabling inclusive, transformational economic growth, investment and regeneration, improving infrastructure and housing to unleash the Town’s full economic potential for all our residents.
A new operations and maintenance (O&M) campus and business incubator on the Great Yarmouth Energy Park
Land assembly for the strategic regeneration of North Quay through private sector-led mixed-use redevelopment
Strengths
Globally competitive renewables supply chain with huge potential for growth;
One of the most successful Enterprise Zone projects in the UK with significant inward investment already realised within the Energy Park;
A strong maritime sector and infrastructure with a deep-water harbour, river berths and new investment secured for a Third River Crossing to improve connectivity to key growth sites;
Underutilised waterfront land assets and sites near public transport gateways suitable for commercial and residential development.
Challenges
Land value and development viability are a barrier to realising inward investment and regeneration;
Areas of high deprivation, correlating with skills/education, income, unemployment and health outcomes;
Whilst Gorleston-on-Sea is relatively resilient, the vitality and health of Great Yarmouth town centre has been declining, as reflected in footfall and commercial vacancy rates;
The need to balance the availability of both higher-quality, more-aspirational housing stock and affordable homes to meet the needs of all residents;
A traditional economic reliance on certain forms of seasonal employment associated with tourism;
low enterprise birth rates and high five-year enterprise mortality rates, indicating a less-vibrant entrepreneurial economy.
What Success Looks Like
Great Yarmouth is a vibrant, entrepreneurial coastal Enterprise Town: attracting new businesses and human capital by investing in physical business development infrastructure and wraparound support to provide pathways to higher-value jobs and economic inclusion.
Growth of the clean energy sector is capitalised upon to create local opportunities: capital works have been brought forward to create the conditions required to catalyse further inward investment into key sites and build a more resilient local economy.
Key regeneration projects are progressed: focusing on underutilised sites – particularly where they correspond to transport links and population centres – that rebalance the residential/commercial mix, support residential densification and increase the availability of both higher-quality, more-aspirational stock and affordable homes to meet the needs of all residents.