In the recent mini-budget, Kwasi Kwarteng announced he was in discussions with 38 local authorities to open new investment zones and Essex County Council is one of those local authorities.

If Essex was to be awarded as a new investment zone it would benefit from:

• Time-limited tax benefits for those businesses in the designated areas.
• In the designated areas planning rules would be radically streamlined opening up new opportunities for housing and commercial development to accelerate growth.
• Inward investment in the next spending review period.

There will be significant tax benefits in this new zone which will include business rates relief, plus full stamp duty relief on land acquired for commercial or residential development and zero rate NI contributions on new employee earnings up to £50,270 pa.

This will sit alongside the Freeport East initiative where there is still potential for a green energy hub at Bathside Bay

These are obviously not immediate fixes for businesses in Essex and London, but it is good to see there are discussions going on with Essex county council for continued support for the county,

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