Norfolk MP challenges local businesses to create 'sustainable growth' model
George Freeman wants more decisions on transport and infrastructure investment to be made locally
Last updated 27th Nov 2022
A Norfolk MP is challenging Eastern businesses to create a new "private funding model", which can provide the region with sustainable growth.
The appeal comes from George Freeman, who wants more decisions on transport and infrastructure investment to be made locally. So, much needed projects can get off the ground quicker.
"Fast rail-links and stations as little digital 5G business hubs"
George Freeman is MP for Mid Norfolk.
He says action is needed quickly, but change won't come overnight:
"I'm slightly worried that if we are not careful growth in the East will become the old model of commuter housing estates, making the A11 the biggest traffic-jam visible from space. What I think we need is a healthier model of growth and development, more people able to walk or cycle to the station. As well as fast rail-links and stations as little digital 5G business hubs".
"The real challenge is how we change the way we fund infrastructure. Having been a minister at the DFT Department of Transport it is quite slow, and it goes through a very slow sign-off process through Highways England and Network Rail. That's a more challenging area to create a situation where local councillors, entrepreneurs, a mayor can really make stuff happen bottom up".
"We can make East Anglia the new California"
He told us what he'd like to see:
"There is an opportunity for us to attract private investment. I would love to see a Cambridge-Norwich railway development corporation given the powers to raise private finance to upgrade the stations. I'd like us to do what the Victorians did and pay for the railway through property development and put a town or two on the railway line. That would be a way of attracting private investment much more quickly".
"If we got a faster train links through Ipswich and Norwich, 4G and 5G in the area, we can make East Anglia the new California. What I mean by that is it can be home to lots of little companies, liberating people from the tyranny of being commuters stuck in traffic jams working healthily and productively closer to or from home".