The Thames Estuary Production Corridor

The Thames Estuary has the potential to double its creative production economy, creating an incredible 50,000 jobs to make the region the UK’s largest concentration of creative production.    

Over the last few years, fashion design and manufacturing in the Thames Estuary has grown more than twice as fast as the rest of the country, while the screen industries have grown at a rate more than double the UK average.  

To build on this great progress, two Road Maps for Growth have been created as a resource and toolkit to support estuary leaders in boosting local growth, employment and investment through cultural infrastructure.  

Download the Road Maps for Growth and supporting sector analysis reports for insights into how we can create a sustainable creative ecosystem to become the engine room of the UK cultural industries.

Read the Road Map for Growth: Screen industries

Read the Road Map for Growth: Fashion design and manufacturing

Two sector analysis reports were compiled as part of an MHCLG funded research commission in 2020, which aim to make a case for investment in cultural infrastructure across the Thames Estuary region. 

Read the Sector analysis and evidence base: Screen industries

Read the Sector analysis and evidence base: Fashion design and manufacturing

The Thames Estuary Production Corridor is a significant programme uniting east London, the North Kent Coast and South Essex to build on the strength of the creative economy in the region.   

The Thames Estuary is home to film studios and fabricators, dance schools and digital production houses, music and media facilities – all the building blocks of the UK’s creative and cultural economy. The Thames Estuary Production Corridor harnesses this strong base. 
 
The Thames Estuary Production Corridor is a way for partners in the region to work together to achieve something that is bigger than the sum of its parts – involving 18 local authorities, key sector organisations, education, businesses and communities. It will help to build more creative places – finding new uses for our high streets, town centres and neighbourhoods, rejuvenating places through culture-led investment.

Building on the area's manufacturing legacy, this ambitious programme is developing a series of large scale, state-of-the-art creative and cultural production centres across the Estuary, creating opportunities for strategic skills programmes and putting local talent at its heart.

Since release of the Thames Estuary Production Corridor vision in 2017, the region has seen momentous development and investment from both the public and private sector. Through an MHCLG-funded research commission, we have: 

• Mapped hundreds of potential sites across the Estuary to unlock potential cultural production use.
• Developed a pipeline of exciting potential cultural production projects, including three strategic ‘accelerator projects’ in Basildon, Margate and Tower Hamlets designed to fuel local growth and recovery.
• Published two Road Map for Growth reports for two strong creative production sectors in the Estuary: screen and fashion production. 

The Road Maps for Growth will help to deliver cultural infrastructure to enrich communities and places. They are aimed at local authority leaders and policy makers, creative organisations, the education and skills sectors as well as planners, developers and investors.

The documents show how the screen and fashion production industries are already growing healthily in the Estuary and how to harness and build on that growth locally. They set out how real change can be delivered for the region through fair investment, with a focus on creating a unique, innovative and future facing creative economy.

The Road Maps describe the steps needed to address current infrastructure gaps in the region to help make the most of the opportunities presented by the screen and fashion sectors.

The reports set out what makes the estuary such a special opportunity for creative production. They are each underpinned by a detailed evidence base, published through GLA datastore. The reports include sector growth trends, how to build capacity through infrastructure, local and international case studies and the specific spatial needs for different parts of creative production economy. 

Stretching from London to the coastlines of Essex and Kent, the Thames Estuary area extends from east London to Margate on the south bank of the Thames to Southend on the north bank. It includes seven east London Boroughs: Barking and Dagenham, Bexley, Greenwich, Havering, Lewisham, Newham and Tower Hamlets.

The Thames Estuary Production Corridor was established by the Mayor of London and the South East Local Enterprise Partnership in 2017.

It marks a strong commitment to cross-boundary collaboration with partners working together through the Thames Estuary Production Corridor advisory board.

The unique partnership includes the GLA, Creative Estuary, the Thames Estuary Growth Board, The South East Creative Economy Network (SECEN), the Royal Docks team, the seven east London boroughs that are part of the Thames Estuary region, Kent and Essex County Councils, and eleven local authority areas, represented by Thames Gateway Kent Partnership and Opportunity South Essex.

The Thames Estuary Production Corridor and projects that form part of its umbrella, are working with a network of higher and further education institutions, including University of the Arts London, Kent and Essex Universities, and cultural organisations in the Estuary, including Metal and Cement Fields.

The Thames Estuary Production Corridor is supported by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as well as the Thames Estuary Growth Board and Envoy.