Regional businesses leaders and local authorities met this week at London Gatwick’s annual Economic Summit to discuss opportunities to unlock economic growth through a new Airport Economic Zone (AEZ).
We spoke to Alison Addy, Gatwick's Head of External Engagement and Policy, Stewart Wingate, Gatwick CEO and Mardi Roberts, brand ambassador for Ridgeview Wine Estate
We spoke to Alison Addy, Gatwick's Head of External Engagement and Policy, Stewart Wingate, Gatwick CEO and Mardi Roberts, brand ambassador for Ridgeview Wine Estate
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00:00The other thing that we're really pleased to announce today, and this is very much taken into account
00:04some of the feedback over the last two years, is the Gatwick Region Airport Economic Zone.
00:21So you'll hear more about this later on in the morning from Alice Naddy. She's the head of
00:26External Affairs and Policy at Gatwick Airport, known to many people in the room.
00:31Alison will be chairing a new innovative public and private task force which will be looking at
00:40the airport economic zone with the purpose of striving to achieve a united and unified
00:46regional identity in order to bolster the economic activity across the region.
00:52I'm Alison Naddy, I'm the head of External Engagement and Policy at London Gatwick.
00:56Yes, we're really excited about this announcement today and actually I feel really privileged to be
01:01the chair of that task force. This is something that we've been working towards for some time
01:06and really hearing what stakeholders from across the region have been telling us around the need
01:11for a one unified regional voice to promote this amazing region that London Gatwick is located
01:17within. So what we're doing is we've got a range of people who are representing strategic
01:24economic development from across the region. They're drawn from local authorities, business,
01:32tourism and the main pillars of economic development for the region. They're drawn
01:38from areas across East Sussex, West Sussex, Surrey, Kent, Brighton and Hove and Croydon,
01:43so that we're really covering that economic footprint of the airport. We'll be meeting
01:50before the end of the year and the role of that task force will be to work together over the
01:55course of next year to really identify what the shape of that region should be, what the priorities
02:02should be, where we should be focusing and really drawing on input from the business community,
02:08from local authorities and other partners to make sure that we then have a roadmap to creating a
02:15sort of more long-term formal airport economic zone that can really have a transformational
02:21impact and build on the strengths that we already have and all of those strategic activities that
02:27already happen, but just leverage that a little bit more so that we can really come together
02:32and promote the area and attract inward investment into the area and
02:38ultimately help businesses grow and thrive.
02:48So as we've been holding these conferences, obviously one of the purposes is to take
02:52feedback from the delegates and one of the big pushes from the delegates is for the airport to
02:58form an airport economic zone, so we've decided to take that forward this year. We'll start this
03:04before the end of 2024 and we'll be reaching out and involving all of the different partner
03:09organisations to get their input as we start to form a board which will be chaired by our
03:16Head of External Affairs and Policy.
03:19I'm Mardy Roberts, I'm Brand Ambassador from Ridgeview Wine Estate. We've been involved with
03:28Gatwick as part of the local visitor economy and now it's fantastic that this is going to
03:33be furthered with the economic zone. Gatwick have just been so supportive of us as a region
03:39and also for our visitor economy and really, really supporting and championing local projects
03:44which is fantastic. So we're just 30 minutes from Gatwick which has been brilliant, so we have
03:49increasing number of international tourism and it's so important to have Gatwick as that gateway
03:54for us. Not only that, it's really exciting, our wines are now available in Gatwick for on their
03:59journeys home and even more importantly we do export our wine all around the world, so access
04:05to all these markets around the world is very, very important and the ease of being able to come
04:10in and out of Gatwick is fantastic. It's all about investment, it's all about believing in
04:15our local economy, it's all about putting us up on an international stage and how we can work
04:21together as stakeholders and local businesses are really, really working together in partnership
04:26and Gatwick have just been so supportive of that journey.