Business leaders have urged the new Chancellor to deliver a growth-boosting Budget for Greater Lincolnshire.

Business leaders in Greater Lincolnshire have urged the new Chancellor Rishi Sunak to deliver a growth-boosting Budget for Greater Lincolnshire.

The Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership has written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer outlining the spending required to realise the area’s economic potential.

The list includes new roads, new rail links, infrastructure for housing growth, free ports and much more besides.

In his letter to the Chancellor, the LEP’s Chair Pat Doody sets out the priority areas which would enable Greater Lincolnshire to “implement rapidly our ambitious plans to unleash our potential and level up our renewal and economic growth.”

He adds: “The strategic intent of levelling up [across the UK] is highly relevant to Greater Lincolnshire, which is arguably one of the areas most in need of such investment.”

The key opportunities outlined in the letter are:

  • accelerate the production of Greater Lincolnshire’s Local Industrial Strategy
  • speed up development of Food Enterprise Zones in Holbeach and provide a post-Brexit business support programme to ease the transition
  • turn Greater Lincolnshire into a rural test bed for energy and water and a national leader in agriculture sustainability and carbon footprinting
  • build on Greater Lincolnshire’s strengths in the defence sector and create a £12 million Defence Innovation Centre on the Lincoln Science Park
  • increase investment in infrastructure, including:
    • infrastructure for thousands of new homes in and around Grantham
    • a North Hykeham relief road to complete the Lincoln bypass
    • free ports in Lincolnshire to help rebalance the UK’s trade flows
    • upgrading the A1 between Peterborough and Doncaster to motorway standard
    • bringing Sleaford and Gainsborough into the Town Deals programme which currently includes Lincoln, Boston, Scunthorpe, Grimsby, Skegness and Mablethorpe

Pat Doody commented: “Greater Lincolnshire has developed a strong track record of delivery and, as we have set out in our letter, we have many exciting and distinctive opportunities ahead.

“The Government says it is committed to rebalancing the UK economy and supporting areas in the Midlands and the North to fulfil their obvious potential. Our letter sets out to the Chancellor how this can be achieved with regard to Greater Lincolnshire, and we look forward to discussing these opportunities with him and his team at the Treasury.”