00:00The other thing that we're really pleased to announce today, and this is very much taken into account
00:04some of the feedback over the last two years, is the Gatwick Region Airport Economic Zone.
00:21So you'll hear more about this later on in the morning from Alice Naddy. She's the head of
00:26External Affairs and Policy at Gatwick Airport, known to many people in the room.
00:31Alison will be chairing a new innovative public and private task force which will be looking at
00:40the airport economic zone with the purpose of striving to achieve a united and unified
00:46regional identity in order to bolster the economic activity across the region.
00:52I'm Alison Naddy, I'm the head of External Engagement and Policy at London Gatwick.
00:56Yes, we're really excited about this announcement today and actually I feel really privileged to be
01:01the chair of that task force. This is something that we've been working towards for some time
01:06and really hearing what stakeholders from across the region have been telling us around the need
01:11for a one unified regional voice to promote this amazing region that London Gatwick is located
01:17within. So what we're doing is we've got a range of people who are representing strategic
01:24economic development from across the region. They're drawn from local authorities, business,
01:32tourism and the main pillars of economic development for the region. They're drawn
01:38from areas across East Sussex, West Sussex, Surrey, Kent, Brighton and Hove and Croydon,
01:43so that we're really covering that economic footprint of the airport. We'll be meeting
01:50before the end of the year and the role of that task force will be to work together over the
01:55course of next year to really identify what the shape of that region should be, what the priorities
02:02should be, where we should be focusing and really drawing on input from the business community,
02:08from local authorities and other partners to make sure that we then have a roadmap to creating a
02:15sort of more long-term formal airport economic zone that can really have a transformational
02:21impact and build on the strengths that we already have and all of those strategic activities that
02:27already happen, but just leverage that a little bit more so that we can really come together
02:32and promote the area and attract inward investment into the area and
02:38ultimately help businesses grow and thrive.
02:48So as we've been holding these conferences, obviously one of the purposes is to take
02:52feedback from the delegates and one of the big pushes from the delegates is for the airport to
02:58form an airport economic zone, so we've decided to take that forward this year. We'll start this
03:04before the end of 2024 and we'll be reaching out and involving all of the different partner
03:09organisations to get their input as we start to form a board which will be chaired by our
03:16Head of External Affairs and Policy.
03:19I'm Mardy Roberts, I'm Brand Ambassador from Ridgeview Wine Estate. We've been involved with
03:28Gatwick as part of the local visitor economy and now it's fantastic that this is going to
03:33be furthered with the economic zone. Gatwick have just been so supportive of us as a region
03:39and also for our visitor economy and really, really supporting and championing local projects
03:44which is fantastic. So we're just 30 minutes from Gatwick which has been brilliant, so we have
03:49increasing number of international tourism and it's so important to have Gatwick as that gateway
03:54for us. Not only that, it's really exciting, our wines are now available in Gatwick for on their
03:59journeys home and even more importantly we do export our wine all around the world, so access
04:05to all these markets around the world is very, very important and the ease of being able to come
04:10in and out of Gatwick is fantastic. It's all about investment, it's all about believing in
04:15our local economy, it's all about putting us up on an international stage and how we can work
04:21together as stakeholders and local businesses are really, really working together in partnership
04:26and Gatwick have just been so supportive of that journey.
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