UK’s Hunt to Announce New Investment Zone Plans to Boost Growth

Joe Mayes
·2 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

(Bloomberg) -- Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt will announce plans for 12 new investment zones in his budget, pledging to “supercharge” growth across the UK through tax incentives and extra funding.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The zones will be clustered around research institutions such as universities and will aim to spur investment in areas like technology, life sciences and advanced manufacturing, the Treasury said in an e-mailed statement. Eight of the zones will be in England and the other four in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Hunt’s plans represent a downsizing of the policy as initially proposed by former Prime Minister Liz Truss. At the time of Truss’s mini-budget in September last year, which Hunt later junked to arrest a market slide, the government was in discussion with 38 local authorities about establishing investment zones.

Hunt is under pressure to find ways to spur growth in Britain, with the UK still the only G-7 member yet to see its economy return to its pre-covid size. Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government is also struggling to make good on its flagship “levelling up” promise, with Bloomberg’s Levelling Up Scorecard showing that Britain’s poorest regions have fallen further behind the wealthier region of London and the South East since the last election.

“True levelling up must be about local wealth creation and local decision-making to unblock obstacles to regeneration,” Hunt said in the statement about the investment zone plans. “We are delivering on our key priority to supercharge growth across the country.”

Each of the investment zones will be backed with £80 million ($98 million) over five years and the aim is for the plans to be agreed with local partners by the end of 2023, the Treasury said.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.