High-speed Broadband in the South will kick-start Britain?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/seco...

David Cameron today announced a second wave of enterprise zones designed to kick-start Britain's economy.

The Prime Minister said the sites, which benefit from tax breaks and high-speed internet links, would be "trailblazers" for prosperity throughout the country.

The government named the first 11 zones in the spring, in cities including Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle.

I googled for the details of the spring announcements:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/mar/23/budget-2011...

George Osborne announced that the first zones will be based in Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool, Greater Manchester, the west of England, the north-east, Tees Valley, Nottinghamshire, the Black Country and Derbyshire.

Going back to the original article:

The successful bids in the second round were:

:: Humber Estuary Renewable Energy Super Cluster;

:: Daresbury Science Campus in Warrington;

:: Newquay AeroHub in Cornwall;

:: The Solent Enterprise Zone at Daedalus Airfield in Gosport;

:: MIRA Technology Park in Hinckley, Leicestershire;

:: Rotherwas Enterprise Zone in Hereford;

:: Discovery Park in Sandwich, Kent, and Enterprise West Essex in Harlow;

:: Science Vale UK in Oxfordshire;

:: Northampton Waterside;

:: Alconbury Airfield, near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire;

:: Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, and Lowestoft in Suffolk.

So...out of twenty one zones announced, there are none in Wales, none in Northern Ireland and none in Scotland. Of the twenty one, I highlighted the number which are North of Manchester. I assume some aspect of devolution is at work here, and if that is so, why say,

""We are determined to do everything we can to make Britain the best place in the world to start and grow a business."

It's a bit difficult to comment without knowing how many bids there were from Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland.

Edit: I've now found the answer to my own question. Enterprise Zones are based on Local Enterprise Partnerships, which are purely an English initiative. No doubt something to do with different local government setups in the other parts of the UK.

Edited by deleted (Wed 17-Aug-11 11:15:18)

In reply to a post by camieabz:

So...out of twenty one zones announced, there are none in Wales, none in Northern Ireland and none in Scotland. Of the twenty one, I highlighted the number which are North of Manchester. I assume some aspect of devolution is at work here, and if that is so, why say,

""We are determined to do everything we can to make Britain the best place in the world to start and grow a business."

Probably because until the likes of Alex Salmond get their way, Cameron still has to be seen to be including Scotland etc in what he says.

In reply to a post by AEP:

It's a bit difficult to comment without knowing how many bids there were from Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland.

What of:

"We are determined to do everything we can to make Britain the best place in the world to start and grow a business."

Also, since the places which least require broadband investment are the business areas of the big cities, and considering that many smaller cities or large towns are still on ADSLmax in many cases, it strikes me as odd that they have decided to focus on giving tax breaks and high-speed broadband to areas which can probably afford to fund their own broadband solutions, or at least contribute to them.

Perhaps it's a simple case of winning English urban votes (or more likely, English business votes). Not being wholly cynical, but am failing to see another logical reason for this.

I thought I'd read somewhere, perhaps in relation to the currently top TBB news item, that Scotland (& Northern Ireland?) had access to part of these funds but no included in this particular announcement. Trouble is I can't find the article now

Ah, read this.

Edit to add link

Edited by cheshire_man (Wed 17-Aug-11 11:25:30)

What of: "We are determined to do everything we can to make England the best place in the world to start and grow a business."?

I'm guessing that you'd be complaining more if he had said that. I presume that this particular initiative is not the only one designed to "make Britain the best place in the world to start and grow a business".

It's not an anti-English rant. It's a legitimate question as to why he refers to Britain, when only England (mostly the South of) is getting considered for the enterprise zones. You don't see the distinction?

I do see the distinction. But I don't assume that this is the only initiative towards making Britain a better place for businesses. I supose, to be strict, he should only have referred to the areas in question and not "Britain", or even "England". How are the poor people of Bognor Regis supposed to feel?

I think you are being a little oversensitive.

But if Enterprise Zones are purely an English are purely an English initiative as AEP said earlier then an announcement referring to Enterprise Zones is going to be about parts of England.

As the BBC link earlier Scotland does have access to funds and it's up to the Scottish government about how it is going to use its funding.

I think Camie's point is that Cameron referred to "Britain" rather than "England" when making the announcement. But I can imagine the uproar if he were to say that the Government were determined to make England a good place for businesses!