Have your say on our ambitious plan for growth in the Thames Valley Berkshire sub region

Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has submitted its draft Strategic Economic Plan (SEP) to government.

SEPs are multi-year plans through which 39 Local Enterprise Partnerships will compete with each other, whilst combining to drive economic growth nationally. 

The draft Thames Valley Berkshire SEP establishes an overarching priority to secure better access to talented people and bright ideas, and to use both more effectively. It asserts that this can be achieved by improving the skills of the current and future workforce; retaining the businesses in Thames Valley Berkshire and growing new ones through the best ‘soft’ infrastructure in the UK; while securing more investment in the ‘hard’ infrastructure that is so critical for an economy second only in output to the whole of London.

The draft plan will:
1. Inspire the next generation and build aspirations and ambition
2. Ensure that economic potential is not restricted by labour supply issues
3. Ensure that knowledge is effectively commercialised and grown within Thames Valley Berkshire
4. Make Thames Valley Berkshire’s towns genuine hubs in the ideas economy

Thames Valley Berkshire’s draft plan drives other funding streams bids, such as the EU Structural and Investment Funds, Growing Places Fund, future rounds of the Regional Growth Fund and the Thames Valley Berkshire City Deal.

The Thames Valley Berkshire SEP is underpinned by evidence commissioned from Cambridge Econometrics and has been developed after extensive consultation that is continuing into 2014; to date over 50 stakeholder meetings have been held to get the Plan to its current, advanced state.

The LEP will submit its final Strategic Economic Plan in March 2014 with a Local Growth Deal announced in July 2014 and investment to begin in April 2015. 

To view the Plan and then take part in a survey, please visit

The deadline for feedback is Friday 7 February 2014.