Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership is already investing £47.7m in a range of economic development and infrastructure projects from the government’s Growth Deal programmes 1 and 2.

This investment is set to create more than 7,000 jobs, bring in an additional £29.6m private-sector investment, and deliver 275,000sq metres of refurbished business premises. I

t will also provide thousands more skills development and learning opportunities, deliver new homes and ensure superfast broadband coverage is available across the county.

The range of these projects is diverse, from major infrastructure developments such as Barrow Waterfront and transport improvements to the A590, through to Kingmoor Park Enterprise Zone and Carlisle College’s Advanced Manufacturing Centre.

Access improvements to Durranhill Industrial Estate in Carlisle are enabling business expansion and the revitalising of this enterprise asset.

A package of sustainable transport measures has been put together and is being implemented to optimise connectivity within Cumbria, particularly around key visitor arrival points and visitor attractions around Windermere and Grasmere.

Other transport improvements in and around Kendal are facilitating housing development and business growth, while junction improvements are set to increase capacity in the south of Ulverston to support the expansion of GlaxoSmithKline and housing development.

The remediation and improvement of the Barrow Waterfront site will enable growth for this key centre of advanced manufacturing, transforming derelict land into a business park for more employment.

Site clearance and levelling, decontamination work, the removal of industrial debris, provision of utilities, landscaping and raised earthworks for flood protection will allow the site to become home to supply chain firms alongside the new BAE logistics facility.

The Advanced Manufacturing Technology Centre at Furness College will equip local people with the skills to take up the expanding opportunities at BAE and other major employers in the county, particularly within the supply chain for major manufacturers.

Carlisle College’s Advanced Manufacturing Centre will deliver an employer-led curriculum at all levels to the engineering, manufacturing, and processing sectors.

The second phase of the Connecting Cumbria programme is extending the availability of superfast broadband.

Cumbria LEP is clear in its ambition to achieve 100 per cent superfast broadband coverage in the county by 2021.

Through the Openreach commercial deployment, fibre broadband has now reached more than 100,000 premises in Cumbria.

Work with the Connecting Cumbria programme over the last three years has taken fibre coverage to over 90 per cent.

Economic development investment is helping to ensure that the Port of Workington continues on its path to becoming a major logistics hub in west Cumbria, with access and infrastructure work ongoing.

The project will help ‘future-proof’ the port, in the first instance by delivering better road and rail links to the port and employment land to the north, and by progressing core port infrastructure works.