The South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) has exceeded its expectations in helping to boost economic development in the South East, according to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
The DTI’s figures showed that SEEDA created or attracted 2,027 new businesses to the region in the 2005/2006 financial year.
It also helped 35,700 businesses improve their performance, and assisted 627 businesses to engage in new collaborations with the UK knowledge database.
Between 2005 and 2006 SEEDA’s work attracted £261m of investment to regenerate deprived areas, with 21% of it coming from the private sector. It also regenerated 101 hectares of brownfield land.
The new opportunities created an extra 4,240 new jobs in the region.
It also helped 8,770 people to find employment, and assisted 41,783 people in developing their skills, including 5,248 through the Skills for Life strategy and 437 supported to achieve a level two qualification or its equivalent.
Chairman of SEEDA Jim Brathwaite CBE said: “These results demonstrate the positive impact that SEEDA is having on the region. They show a significant increase on previous years, particularly in numbers of new businesses created or attracted into the South East - a fourfold increase on two years ago - and in the amount of private sector investment in regeneration that we have successfully leveraged.”
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2006
