Dorset portfolio aims to ignite multi-billion investments

blackmorevaleApril 27, 20210 Comment0

An investment roadmap aimed at delivering a multi-billion-pound boost to Dorset’s economy and thousands of jobs over the next 10 years has been published, at investindorset.com.

The Dorset Living Better investment prospectus presents an ambitious portfolio of investment opportunities across all that is best and unique about the areas covered by BCP Council and Dorset Council.

In the next decade it aims to deliver:

A £24 billion uplift to the local economy
48,000 jobs
480,000 sq m of new commercial floorspace
and 8,600 new homes while protecting and enhancing Dorset’s world-class environment.

It sets out how Dorset can embrace technology to be at the forefront of confronting some of humanity’s biggest challenges – from an ageing population, to sustainable food production, to tackling climate change and cyber security – while also growing the local economy. It details how key sectors in the Dorset economy including health, finance, defence and aquaculture can evolve and attract new investment, and why 5G connectivity is a vital catalyst for innovation, social inclusion and wellbeing.

And it focuses on why some of Dorset’s unique attributes, including an older population, one of the best integrated care systems in England, and an outstanding natural environment, can be harnessed for social good and economic gain.

Ambitions include:

Delivery of the proposed Medtech (medical technology) Science Park at Wessex Fields, bringing together health research, education and industry to be a global leader in health innovation, especially for healthy ageing.
The creation of a National Aquaculture Centre of Excellence and an offshore aquaculture park to tap a global £173 billion market for sustainably farmed fish, shellfish, aquatic plants and algae, and build on Dorset’s national status as a ‘High Potential Opportunity’ for aquaculture investment.
Developing Dorset’s defence and cyber security cluster, working with the Army’s BattleLab Defence Innovation Centre at Winfrith, to develop new products and technologies that could be commercialised. This is especially relevant given the recent defence review and the commitment to invest £23bn in new technology.

Work on the prospectus began last summer and has been driven by the Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), working closely with local authorities, business, education and environment groups. The prospectus will help inform future bids to the Government’s £1.5 billion regional Shared Prosperity Fund which is launched next year, and more immediately to the £220m pilot scheme called the Community Renewal Fund.