UK nations and regions
East of England
The East of England is driving innovation in high-productivity sectors including life sciences, digital services, clean energy generation, creative industries and advanced manufacturing technologies.
The region benefits from a dynamic startup and spinout landscape, which brings together academia and business, with direct access to top-tier research facilities like the Cambridge Science Park, the Babraham Research Campus and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. It is anchored by the Cambridge Norwich Tech Corridor, a 100km innovation corridor spanning Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, and Norfolk that connects 2 powerhouse cities.
Key facts for the East of England
£163 billion Gross Value Added (GVA) to the UK economy
6 million homes to be powered by Sizewell C plant’s low-carbon nuclear electricity
270,000 businesses
R&D investment Highest business R&D investment per capita in the UK
Biomedical hub and Adastral Park’s digital cluster
Second largest region in England by land area
An Industrial Strategy for the whole of the UK
The modern Industrial Strategy is a new economic approach – a whole-of-government effort to back the UK’s strengths, with ambitious plans for eight high-growth sectors (‘IS-8’) and the frontier industries at their leading edge, from quantum to pharmaceuticals. It is a 10-year plan, built on stability and openness, to make the UK the best country to invest in.
Building on the East of England's strengths
The East of England already has a huge amount to celebrate and the Industrial Strategy’s Sector Plans promote its wide-ranging strengths to investors.
Advanced manufacturing
Anchored by Cambridge’s world-leading university, the wider Cambridgeshire and Peterborough region (with Milton Keynes and Oxfordshire corridor) comprise spinouts in graphene and batteries and is home to Bosch and Caterpillar.
Clean energy industries
Home to Freeport East where there are Offshore Wind and Hydrogen developments, with consent for a new quay and creation of a green hydrogen hub - for example, Scottish Power aim to invest £150 million in a green hydrogen facility in Felixstowe. There is also a £4.4 billion investment for Sizewell C with a third of the peak construction work (a total of 7,900 people) to come from the local area.
Defence
The East of England has strengths in space, complex weapons, AI, quantum technologies, cyber, engineering biology, semiconductors and advanced connectivity technologies. The Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor is a world-leading arc for innovation cohered around world-famous universities. The region hosts the Space East cluster, backed by the UK Space Agency, the Innovate UK Satellite Applications Catapult and companies like Airbus Defence and Space.
Digital and technologies
The East of England is home to World Smart City awarded Peterborough, Cambridge's West Innovation District and global Innovation Hub. This means Cambridge generates 18% of the UK's tech value with 3% of the UK's investment and draws in Microsoft, Apple, Google, DeepMind and Samsung research bases plus the DAWN supercomputer, Darktrace, FiveAI, Riverlane and Featurespace.
Financial services
Norwich and East Norfolk benefit from their strategic location, offering easy access to London and other major UK cities. Norwich is home to a thriving and historic insurance sector, with Aviva operating in the city. The region has a strong local professional services sector and is home to universities that offer a stream of graduates for the local talent pool.
Life sciences
The Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor is a leader in R&D, translational medicine and AI adoption for healthcare outcomes, with an extensive talent, incubator, VC, advisory and science park network. It is anchored by world-leading universities, NHS teaching hospitals and global pharma firms such as AstraZeneca and BioNTech.
Foundational industries relevant to IS-8 supply chains
The East of England has a number of ports in its estuary, alongside Freeport East, and a construction sector.
Driving regional growth in the East of England
The Industrial Strategy introduces ambitious policies to drive growth and investment across every nation and region of the UK. This is a 10-year strategy which will be a living document. We want to continue to work with local government, Mayoral Strategic Authorities and devolved governments to ensure they can drive growth across the UK.
More policies will be delivered over time, but below are some of the specific interventions in the East of England that form part of our strategy.
Locally targeted investments in the IS-8 growth driving sectors
- £14.2 billion investment to build the Sizewell C nuclear plant in Essex and Suffolk, creating 10,000 jobs
Devolved funding for the local leaders who know their places best to help deliver their Local Growth Plans
- Enhanced support for Freeport East in Essex and Suffolk, specialised in advanced manufacturing, with streamlined planning processes, better-targeted investment promotion, support for accessing concessionary finance, and coordinated support on skills
Tools to help city regions and clusters attract private investment
- The British Business Bank will expand their Nations and Regions Investment Funds with £350 million to cover the East of England for the first time
- The government will fund the Cambridge Growth Company to invest in infrastructure to unlock housing and commercial development, enter into partnerships with the private sector and work with local partners on infrastructure delivery. Government will set out more detail on plans for Cambridge shortly
Backing the Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor via major housing and infrastructure projects
- East-West Rail, a major new cross-country rail line cutting journey times significantly between Oxford and Cambridge. This will enable delivery of up to 100,000 new homes, create thousands of new jobs by expanding the commuting populations of economic centres across the corridor, and add £6.7 billion a year to regional Gross Value Added (GVA) by 2050. The first phase will launch shortly and enable direct rail travel between Oxford and Milton Keynes for the first time in nearly 60 years. A new East Coast Mainline station at Tempsford, integrating the Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor into one of the UK’s busiest rail routes between London to Edinburgh
- Ensuring that water companies build new reservoirs in areas around Cambridge (the Fens) and Oxford (Abingdon) so that industrial and residential developments are not held back due to pressures on water availability
- Exploring how to strengthen collaboration between the regional Growth Corridor and parts of the UK with complementary strengths. This will build on recent government investment in the Cambridge-Manchester Innovation Partnership
- Addressing the shortage of high-quality research facilities driven by consistently high demand for R&D space. The UK government will fund the Cambridge Growth Company to invest in infrastructure to unlock housing and commercial development, enter into partnerships with the private sector, and work with local partners on infrastructure delivery, with more details to be set out shortly. The Oxford Growth Commission will also develop a long-term investment strategy
- Cambridgeshire and Peterborough will benefit from a £38 million Local Transport Grant between 2026/27 and 2029/30, which enables local authorities to deliver transport improvements including more zero emission buses, cycleways, accessibility and congestion improvement measures