Council to work with others on key trade route

Published Monday 2 September 2019

Harborough District Council has joined other local authorities in agreeing to work in collaboration to develop a strategy for a key trade route in the Midlands.

Trans Midlands corridor

Harborough District Council’s Cabinet agreed, on 2 September 2019, to sign a Statement of Commitment and Collaboration to work with Midlands Connect to help them to develop an Economic Development Strategy for the ‘Trans-Midlands Corridor’.

All local authorities within Leicestershire have been asked to sign up.

The Trans-Midlands Corridor is a 250 km stretch from Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire to Grimsby in North Lincolnshire.

The corridor is a key area for business output and jobs and the strategy will aim to ensure that any future growth along this stretch is sustainable and appropriate, and that funding is made available to support any required infrastructure.   

The corridor is already an important economic spine; businesses there produced £115billion output in 2015 – nearly 9 per cent of the value of goods and services produced nationally – and is home to over 5million people.

It is important to note; to avoid any confusion, this is not about the future routing of the proposed A46 or the Expressway through Leicestershire and Lincolnshire, which is subject to a separate piece of work that Midlands Connect is undertaking.