The Margate Town Deal was awarded up to £22.2m as part of the Chancellor’s Budget announcement on Wednesday 3 March 2021. The funding will deliver the aspirations of Margate’s Town Investment Plan and help Margate prepare for the future with a focus on creating jobs, supporting town centres, boosting businesses and connecting people to where they live and work either through infrastructure or digital.

As part of the Town Deal there will be a £9m investment in Margate’s creative production and skills which includes establishing a Creative Land Trust to support projects for creative production and education. WorkWild and our partners at PRD will be leading the set-up of the Creative Land Trust.

The Thames Estuary is backed by Government as the UK’s biggest growth opportunity. With the potential to create 1.5 million jobs and add value of up to £115bn to the nation’s economy, iti it integral to growth and recovery post-Brexit and post-Covid. Creative Estuary is part of the Government endorsed Thames Estuary Production Corridor (TEPC) project, initiated by the South East Creative Economy Network and Greater London Authority.

Creative Estuary is a consortium of public sector and cultural organisations, working together to transform 60 miles of the Thames Estuary across Essex and Kent into one of the most exciting cultural hubs in the world. By using culture as the catalyst for growth, the Thames Estuary will provide much-needed space for expanding creative businesses and provide the scale of services, skills and infrastructure sought by both UK organisations and international creative producers.

To give cultural industries room to grow, to innovate and to breathe across the Thames Estuary Creative Estuary are keen to provide the right physical spaces for creative communities and cultural partners. Our work to assess options to create support structures for bringing workspace into long-term use by the creative sector will form part of their work to address this need.