Inventing our future Collective action for a sustainable economy

What do we need to change?
The spatial response
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However, there is also evidence of an increasing functional relationship
between cities within the East of England and London. Examples include
the role of Norwich, Ipswich, Peterborough and Southend-on-Sea as
centres for wholesale financial and insurance services that complement
London’s global head office function in financial and business services.
The relationships between London, the East of England and the South
East of England are deepening, with growing integration of labour and
housing markets, economic and leisure functions.
The challenge for the region is to capture the value of its proximity to
London as a leading global city, and increasingly Milton Keynes as a
centre of core city scale in the future. London itself will benefit from
improved performance and growth in the network of surrounding towns
and medium-sized cities, given their assets, economic functions and
collective market scale. However, to realise these benefits, coordinated
investment is needed to improve infrastructure to the level of other
world-city regions, and foster greater knowledge and technology transfer.
A network of cities and towns
It is immediately apparent that the East of England is quite distinctive in
terms of the scale and distribution of its towns and cities. In most other
parts of the UK, individual core cities such as Birmingham or Manchester
dominate where people live and work, where businesses locate and how
transport systems operate. In recognising the benefits of agglomeration,
the government has increasingly sought to invest in and plan for the
future of these places as major regional and national economic drivers.
The East of England is heavily influenced by its close relationship with
London as a world city. It does not contain any core city scale conurbations
within its geography. Given this position, the key is to understand the role
that the East of England’s urban areas can play both in relation to London
and each other in accommodating the levels of growth required in the
region, and in responding to the benefits of agglomeration.
The Sustainable Communities Plan (2003) identified four national growth
areas. Substantial parts of three growth areas fall within the East of
England, including:
• London-Stansted-Cambridge-Peterborough, which now includes
Chelmsford and Bury St Edmunds
• Milton Keynes-South Midlands, including Luton and Bedford
• Thames Gateway South Essex.
Consultation is under way on the inclusion of Dacorum, St Albans and
Welwyn Hatfield within the growth areas. In addition, Haven Gateway,
Norwich, King’s Lynn and Thetford have been identified as new growth
points. The region’s growth areas and growth points are important in
improving the balance of housing supply, affordability and economic growth.
The East of England Plan sets out 21 key centres for development and
change. Whilst all are a focus for growth, they vary greatly in their
economic scale, role and drivers. The urban framework identifies distinct
typologies within the key centres within the East of England:
• centres that act as independent centres of regional-scale cities, such as
Norwich, Peterborough, Cambridge and Ipswich
• regional cities and larger settlements that have greater integration with
London in terms of the labour market, such as Luton, Southend-on-Sea,
Colchester, Chelmsford and Watford