Plans for a £1.5 million project to address a shortfall of jobs and office space in Littleport have been given the backing by East Cambridgeshire District Council.

The council has approved £550,000 towards the cost of improving and expanding the E-Space North Business Centre into a dynamic hub to support the formation and growth of new and existing businesses.

The proposed 580sqm facility is essential to address the shortfall in employment opportunities and reduce the number of people commuting out of the town to work.

Operating as a business growth zone, the rejuvenated hub will provide additional much needed commercial work space and over a five-year period is expected to generate up to 200 jobs.

The Finance and Assets Committee unanimously agreed to allocate the council's Rural England Prosperity Funding to the project on Monday evening (3 July 2023).

It will be added to £925,000 already allocated to the project following a successful bid to the Cambridge and Peterborough Combined Authority's market town programme. 

Earlier this year the council invested £50,000 to add solar panels to the roof of E-Space North helping save up to 20 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.

Councillor Alan Sharp, who chairs the committee, said: "Littleport is a town with huge potential and this investment to reinvigorate our already successful business growth hub, E-Space-North will help towards unlocking that for the benefit of local residents and businesses.

"On a practical level, this development will generate up to 200 new jobs, and inject much needed investment into the town's economy.

"But perhaps more importantly it will inspire much-needed confidence in the town and provide the key to further funding streams, which in turn will enable Littleport to deliver its vision for 2030 for the huge benefit of everyone who lives there."