Inventing our future Collective action for a sustainable economy

What do we need to change?
The spatial response
Market towns and the economy
of rural areas
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The East of England contains around a fifth of the UK’s market towns.
These fulfil a vital role as sub-regional centres. Important relationships
exist between individual market towns and the region’s larger urban
areas. Notwithstanding the restructuring of the rural economy in recent
years, the region’s market towns continue to play an important role
relative to their defined rural hinterland. Towns such as Bury St Edmunds,
King’s Lynn and Thetford have grown their economic catchments and
provide significant retail, cultural, tourism and other service and social
provisions. Importantly, a number of the region’s market towns have
achieved growth point status and as such will be expecting to
accommodate significant levels of housing development.
Strategic ambitions
• a positive planning framework, that enables:
• increased provision of affordable housing within broader plans that
help sustain the scale and vitality of villages and market towns
• provision of employment space that allows rural businesses to start
up and grow
• greater certainty to the market on the deployment of renewable
energy.
• effective delivery of skills and workforce development to rural and
coastal communities
• maintaining the East of England as the UK’s leader in agriculture and
food sector, supported by leading research centres of excellence and
knowledge exchange in fields such as biofuels, non-food crops and
agricultural engineering
• improved connectivity and transport services between rural areas and
regional cities to increase connections to the knowledge base centres
of excellence, hubs and markets
• timely provision and take-up of next-generation broadband services,
to enable rural businesses to reach new customers and suppliers
• successful development, management and conservation of
environmental assets to deliver tourism, biodiversity and healthy
living objectives
• improved pathways to employment and access to high-quality services
for those experiencing deprivation in rural and coastal areas.