The Thames Freeport Growth Plan (TFGP) has been revealed to the public, outlining a 20-year road map of opportunities for development, new investment, businesses, and future-forward jobs across East London and South Essex. Stantec played a critical role creating the TFGP as planning and masterplanning lead within an EY-Parthenon-led consortium.
Thames Freeport has already attracted £1.5 billion of private investment and created around 1,400 jobs across three tax sites at Ford Dagenham, Port of Tilbury, and DP World London Gateway. To achieve its 2045 targets, the consortium was tasked with developing a plan showing how the Freeport will support national, regional, and local priorities. The new report estimates the plan will unlock £5.8 billion of additional private investment, £2.5 billion of annual GVA uplift, and create up to 28,000 new jobs.
Stantec’s planning, masterplanning, transport planning, development economics, and stakeholder engagement teams worked to identify dozens of proposed strategic interventions across multiple sites helping create an aspirational programme for coordinated investment and targeted local benefits.
Stantec modelled the economic and social benefits of the proposed interventions; developed approaches to meeting workforce demands, funding considerations, energy generation and distribution needs, and transport requirements; and examined the interaction between residential and commercial areas. Every one of the proposed interventions was tested against residents’ needs.
“This growth plan will create thousands of new jobs, skills, and career pathways for local people, hugely improve transport and connectivity, and connect communities to protected green spaces,” said Iain Painting, national discipline director for planning and design at Stantec. “This project has also highlighted the increasing importance of energy infrastructure and future workforce development as our industries continue to evolve, including the growing use of automation and advanced technologies when creating sustainable economic growth.”
Learn more about Stantec’s role.
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