Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of new jobs that will be created by enterprise zones by 2015.
Enterprise Zones are about delivering long term, locally-led, sustainable growth. Since they started in April 2012, they have laid down the foundations for their success and report that they have so far created over 10,000 jobs and attracted 377 businesses, bringing in £1.9 billion pounds of private sector investment.
We do not collect data on forecast job numbers by 2015, nor are we imposing Whitehall targets; the jobs to be created in each individual Enterprise Zone will reflect the type of commerce or industry supported on the sites (some sectors are more labour-intensive than others), the local priorities of the Enterprise Zone, the size and context of the zone’s sites and the broader local economy.