Why Ipswich fails….

Our £8bn p.a. Greater Ipswich area has no single focus, plan, ambition, authority or voice. Therein lies the issue.

Investors and businesses do not see boundaries when they invest. They see a location, an economic centre and the infrastructure around it. If you want to win investment or retain essential regional services, you need joined up thinking, a single offering and vision.

In contrast, the Greater Ipswich area has a myriad of administration and a vacuum of direct accountability:

  1. One county council (Suffolk County Council) whose cabinet rarely contains anyone elected from Ipswich.

  2. One Borough (Ipswich Borough), one super district council (East Suffolk District ) and two districts (Babergh and Mid-Suffolk District Councils) with THREE wholly separate Local Plans (!).

  3. Four MPs (Tom Hunt, Dan Poulter, James Cartlidge and Therese Coffey),

  4. Suffolk PCC (Police Crime Commissioner) and Ipswich and East Suffolk CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group).

  5. New Anglia LEP, Suffolk Chamber of Commerce, Ipswich Chamber of Commerce and Felixstowe Chamber of Commerce.

We have unelected quangos - and unaccountable rural Suffolk County Council & Suffolk District Portfolio Holders who are rarely elected by anyone here - making huge decisions on Ipswich’s behalf.

Currently, and historically, it takes a minor miracle for so many divergent groups - all with competing and vested interests, different ideologies and focuses - to agree upon anything that Ipswich area needs!

And this is where we are fundamentally different in our approach. We believe that our area deserves more than token gestures or occasional collaboration. We believe that our area is vitally important. So, as the major catalyst for our region’s prosperity there needs to be a single focus, ambition, direction and accountability for Greater Ipswich and the Orwell Peninsula. 

This page created: 24 April, 2016. Last Amended/Updated: December 2019

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