Jeremy Corbyn pledges to pump £30bn into South East
Jeremy Corbyn is pledging to pump £30 billion of investment into the South East if he gets into Downing Street.
The Labour leader backs an investment bank for the English region, greater emphasis on renewable energy use for coastal communities and improved broadband connectivity.
Mr Corbyn was expected to use a party leadership re-election campaign rally in Ramsgate to say: "Labour's investment commitment means delivering over £30 billion for the South East, and making sure that this funding goes to the places that need it most.
"I want to see a new Regional Investment Bank for the South East that will focus on turning around the places that have been on the wrong side of the decisions made elsewhere.
"For Ramsgate, like other coastal towns, that commitment to invest means opening up the opportunities that are there.
"We have huge natural resources in the UK, a world-beating history of scientific research and technological development - including for many years at the Sandwich centre, just down the road from here.
"And we have talent that is simply going to waste at present because of a lack of investment.
"We should be talking about how to restore pride and prosperity to those places in so-called left-behind Britain. But we won't get there with the failed old model.
"Cornwall's £130 million project to bring in superfast broadband has brought it one of the fastest growing digital economies in the country. This investment should be extended east into Kent to unlock potential in coastal towns across the Garden of England.
"Small businesses in the South East have nearly 20% of the national turnover, but receive only 13% of bank lending. Our current banking system is letting our small businesses down.
"Labour will turn that around. With new institutions under local control, with a clear public interest mandate, we'll give real power back to local communities to determine their own futures to rebuild and transform Britain, to ensure that no-one and no community is left behind."
