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Thursday, 19 January 2006
Dartford MP calls for Government to ensure jobs are created in the Thames Gateway
Dartford MP, Dr Howard Stoate, has told the Government that there needs to be a ‘direct link’ between housing and employment growth in the Thames Gateway.

Speaking in a debate on the Thames Gateway in the House of Commons yesterday the MP said: “There is no doubt that regeneration, economic investment and new housing are needed in the Thames Gateway area. I believe, however, that the only way to ensure that housing growth in the area is truly sustainable is to provide a direct link between housing and employment growth.”

“We need to find a way of ensuring that economic growth keeps pace with housing growth. In my constituency, for example, there is a real danger that employment growth will soon begin to lag behind housing growth. The development of more than 1,000 homes in north Dartford is beginning to get under way, while the planned development of between 6,000 and 7,000 homes in Eastern Quarry recently received outline planning permission from the borough council. However, progress in the creation of jobs around the new international station at Ebbsfleet has been much slower.”

“The potential to create more than 20,000 jobs exists, but as yet few substantive expressions of interest have been forthcoming from either the public or the private sector. A commitment by the Government however to a major public sector relocation to Ebbsfleet would undoubtedly help to stimulate greater interest from other potential employers.”

“I believe that until concrete proposals for job creation at Ebbsfleet are on the table, housing developers in the area and on major strategic sites surrounding it should proceed with caution. A substantial proportion of Dartford's labour force—currently 38%—commute to London, and I am anxious to ensure that that percentage does not increase further. Not only would such an increase place further unnecessary pressure on our already overstretched public transport infrastructure, but the viability of the new communities would be undermined if they became, in effect, no more than dormitory villages.”

“I would like the Government to consider either setting up an agency or charging an existing agency with responsibility for examining the viability of new housing development in the Thames Gateway from an economic and employment perspective. An agency with that responsibility, perhaps an executive arm of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister or the Department of Trade and Industry, would complement the work of executive agencies such as the Highways Agency and the Environment Agency, which are charged with examining the impact of new development of the trunk road network and the environment respectively. If such an agency took the view that a development was unsustainable from an employment perspective, it should have power to issue a holding notice delaying development until its concerns have been satisfactorily addressed.”

In his speech Dr Stoate also called for extra Government resources to be made available to invest in new services and infrastructural improvement in Dartford’s Priority Communities such as Swanscombe and Temple Hill. He also highlighted the importance of ensuring that the new developments in Dartford are effectively integrated with existing communities are called for more resources to be allocated to support measures designed to enable this. 
 
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© 2008 Dr Howard Stoate - Member of Parliament for Dartford
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