East of England

East of England
Eastern
Eastern region shown within England
Geography
Status Region
Area
— Total		 Ranked 2nd
19,120 km²
7,382 sq mi
NUTS 1 UKH
Demographics
Population
— Total
— Density		 Ranked 4th
5,388,140 (2001)
282/km² (2001)
GDP per capita £16,086 (2002) (3rd)
Government
HQ Cambridge
Assembly
— Type		 East of England
not directly elected
Regional development EEDA
European parliament East of England
Website

The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. It was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

Its population as of the 2001 census was 5,388,140. The area is mostly low-lying, and the highest place is an unnamed point near the hill of Ivinghoe Beacon, Buckinghamshire in the South East region, reaching 249 m (817 ft). Peterborough, Luton and Southend-on-Sea are the region's most populous urban areas. The southern part of the region lies in the London commuter belt.

Contents

Historical use

Before the creation of the East of England region there had been a smaller standard statistical region of East Anglia which did not include Essex, Hertfordshire or Bedfordshire. They had previously been included in the South East region. The East of England civil defence region shared the boundaries of the current region.

Common use

In common usage the easterly parts of this area, have long been and, continue to be known as East Anglia. The areas closer to London are more commonly called part of the South East with Hertfordshire and Essex included in the "Home Counties".

Governance

Regional government

An East of England Regional Assembly exists to co-ordinate the work of the local councils in the area and provides other functions; it is not an elected body. It is based in Flempton on the A1101 north-west of Bury St Edmunds. The powers held by the regional assembly will pass to the East of England Development Agency in 2010. The Government maintains the Government office for the East of England. The East of England also elects MEPs for the East of England (European Parliament constituency).

East of England Plan

The current version of the East of England Plan, a Revision of the Regional Spatial Strategy for the East of England, was published on 12th May 2008[1]

Local government

The official region consists of the following subdivisions:

Map Ceremonial county Shire county / unitary Districts
EnglandEastNumbered.png Essex 1. Thurrock U.A.
2. Southend-on-Sea U.A.
3. Essex a.) Harlow, b.) Epping Forest, c.) Brentwood, d.) Basildon, e.) Castle Point, f.) Rochford, g.) Maldon, h.) Chelmsford, i.) Uttlesford, j.) Braintree, k.) Colchester, l.) Tendring
4. Hertfordshire a.) Three Rivers, b.) Watford, c.) Hertsmere, d.) Welwyn Hatfield, e.) Broxbourne, f.) East Hertfordshire, g.) Stevenage, h.) North Hertfordshire, i.) St Albans, j.) Dacorum
Bedfordshire 5. Luton U.A.
6. Bedfordshire a.) Bedford, b.) Mid Bedfordshire, c.) South Bedfordshire
Cambridgeshire 7. Cambridgeshire a.) Cambridge, b.) South Cambridgeshire, c.) Huntingdonshire, d.) Fenland, e.) East Cambridgeshire
8. Peterborough U.A.
9. Norfolk a.) Norwich, b.) South Norfolk, c.) Great Yarmouth, d.) Broadland, e.) North Norfolk, f.) King's Lynn and West Norfolk, g.) Breckland
10. Suffolk a.) Ipswich, b.) Suffolk Coastal, c.) Waveney, d.) Mid Suffolk, e.) Babergh, f.) St. Edmundsbury, g.) Forest Heath

Economy

The former electricity company for the area, Eastern Electricity, has the area's distribution now looked after by (French) EDF Energy.

Hertfordshire

The Greater Watford area is home to Camelot Group (owners of the National Lottery), British Waterways, the UK headquarters of international firms Total Oil and Skanska construction, retailers TK Maxx, Majestic Wine, Mothercare, and Costco, Leavesden Film Studios, Sanyo UK, Olympus UK Kenwood and Beko electronic goods manufacturers, Wetherspoons pub chains, the European HQ of the Hilton hotel group and Nestlé Waters. Comet Group plc is in Rickmansworth. Renault UK is in Maple Cross. In Elstree and Borehamwood (close to the A1 motorway) are the Elstree Studios, where the Star Wars films were made and more recently Big Brother, and Hasselblad UK is based in Elstree. Borehamwood is also home to BBC Elstree and Pizza Hut UK. The Boy's Brigade, DSG International (owners of Currys and PC World), while 3Com, Epson UK, Steria (formerly Bull and Honeywell), and Kodak have their UK bases in Hemel Hempstead. In Welwyn Garden City are the headquarters of the Thresher Group and the UK headquarters of Xerox and Hoffmann–La Roche. Shredded Wheat and Shreddies are manufactured in the town by Nestlé, at least until 2008. Tesco is based in Cheshunt and Computacenter in Hatfield. Polaroid UK, Premier Foods and Viglen are in St Albans.

Bedfordshire

Moto Hospitality have their headquarters at Toddington in Bedfordshire (at the service station). Luton is home to easyJet, InBev, Vauxhall, the Bay Restaurant Group (owner of Slug and Lettuce), and the UK headquarters of Electrolux (owner of AEG and Zanussi), Chevrolet UK, and Saab Great Britain. Its neighbour in Dunstable is home to Whitbread. Bedford is home to Fujifilm UK. Autoglass is in nearby Cardington. Kier Group is in Sandy.

East Anglia

The economy in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk is traditionally mostly agricultural. Nationally known companies include Bernard Matthews and Norwich Union in Norwich, Greene King and Branston Pickle in Bury St Edmunds, and Campbell Soup in Kings Lynn. Lotus Cars are at Hethel. In Newmarket is the base of the UK horse racing industry. The main water company for the area, AWG plc is based in Huntingdon. Around Cambridge on numerous science parks, are high technology companies which form the so-called Silicon Fen. Cambridgeshire has a few RAF bases. The USAF still have bases in Suffolk. Subway UK (restaurants) is in Great Shelford. British Sugar is based in Peterborough, as is Perkins Engines. News International have a main office and Indesit (owner of Hotpoint) have their UK headquarters there. The Scout Association is headquartered in Gilwell Park in south Essex and Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) are in Basildon. Clinton Cards is in Loughton.

Transport

Education

Essex and Southend-on-Sea LEAs have selective schools. The others do not. Nine out of the top ten schools in the region (by A level results) are either in Essex or Southend-on-Sea. However, at GCSE, the best performing LEA is Hertfordshire, followed by Cambridgeshire and Southend-on-Sea. Suffolk also performs better than the England average of 45.8% attaining 5 grades A-C including Maths and English. In general, the region performs well at GCSE, with only Luton being low performing. Thurrock and Peterborough are next lowest, but are not underperforming areas. At A level, the best performing area is Southend-on-Sea, followed by Cambridgeshire and Essex. No other areas are above the England average. Thurrock is the least performing area, followed closely by Luton. At A level, Norfolk does not perform well for a rural county.

Cambridge has an eponymous very well known university as well as a second, much less well-known one. There are also other towns and cities in the region which have universities including Norwich (University of East Anglia) and Hatfield (University of Hertfordshire).

Top twenty state schools in the East of England (2007 A level results)

Local media

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The East of England Plan, the Revision to the Regional Spatial Strategy for the East of England, has been published today (12 May 2008)". Go East. Retrieved on 2008-11-13.

External links

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Flag of England Districts of the East of England

Babergh • Basildon • Bedford • Braintree • Breckland • Brentwood • Broadland • Broxbourne • Cambridge • Castle Point • Chelmsford • Colchester • Dacorum • East Cambridgeshire • East Hertfordshire • Epping Forest • Fenland • Forest Heath • Great Yarmouth • Harlow • Hertsmere • Huntingdonshire • Ipswich • King's Lynn and West Norfolk • Luton • Maldon • Mid Bedfordshire • Mid Suffolk • North Hertfordshire • North Norfolk • Norwich • Peterborough • Rochford • St Albans • St Edmundsbury • South Bedfordshire • South Cambridgeshire  Southend-on-Sea • South Norfolk • Stevenage • Suffolk Coastal • Tendring • Three Rivers • Thurrock • Uttlesford • Watford • Waveney • Welwyn Hatfield

Counties with multiple districts: Bedfordshire - Cambridgeshire - Essex - Hertfordshire - Norfolk - Suffolk