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Sometimes the obvious can be staring you in the face. Take the Mandelson debacle. And, in terms of national growth, one of the biggest opportunities for the Government may simply be hiding in plain sight.Look out from the Palace of Westminster, or stand on the terrace, and you see the River Thames, Churchill's ‘golden thread of our nation's history'.Over the centuries, the River Thames, and the wider Thames Estuary, has helped to shape our nation's economic growth: London's extensive Docklands, extending along the river, at one time the world's and still the UK's largest port and the City of London – one of the world's great financial centres – both supporting the UK's status as a major trading nation.With an active waterway, high-speed rail connections and plentiful brownfield sites, and with the proximity to institutional and private finance, the Thames Estuary would appear an unmissable opportunity for a government who's number one stated priority is economic growth. Yet, ironically, its potential could be thwarted by a quirk in the devolution programme.Last year, support for pan-regional partnerships like the Government-backed Thames Estuary Growth Board – established to drive growth across the area – ended, with the intention for the board's role to be picked up through devolution. But while London already had a mayor, Kent was missed altogether from the Government's Devolution Priority Programme and Essex had its mayoral elections delayed.Local government reorganisation then took hold, leaving the Thames Estuary, the ‘UK's No.1 Growth Opportunity', without a champion.That is not to say this government and its predecessors have not recognised the area's potential – and in many cases have delivered on it. Past political interest has been most closely linked to the Lords Heseltine and Prescott, with Canary Wharf and Ebbsfleet Garden City to prove it.In 2018, the independent Thames Estuary 2050 Growth Commission then estimated the Thames Estuary had the potential to deliver an additional £190bn in productivity and 1.3 million jobs, supported by more than one million new homes. These figures exceeded the potential growth rates of the Northern Powerhouse and the Midlands Engine among others, and put the opportunities for the estuary firmly back on the Government's policy agenda.The brainchild of Lord Heseltine, the commission was prompted by his belief that little had changed since he took proposals to Cabinet some 30 years before. Lord Heseltine convinced then chancellor George Osborne to commission a study nationally from the Treasury, taking the proposal to individual Cabinet members to gain departmental support.In two further strokes of genius, Lord Heseltine extended the defined area to the Essex and Kent coasts, thereby capturing the true potential of the estuary corridor. It had previously been curtailed along district boundaries, and gave a timeline outside the constraints of the existing Spending Review, enabling much freer and creative thinking on what was required and what could be delivered.The Government's response to the commission report, published by Sir John Armitt following Lord Heseltine's departure, was to establish the Thames Estuary Growth Board, charged with enabling growth across the area.But with the growth board now gone, even with its limited powers, what is the solution? And, what might be learned for other areas potentially overlooked through devolution?A spatial approach is required. The estuary spans a huge area with transport, trade and movement at its heart. The river itself, with a huge capacity for freight, including the Thames Freeport, the major roads that run in parallel, three airports, the country's only high-speed railway line, is all capped with the confirmation of a new Thames Crossing, to be one of the widest tunnels in the world and the UK's biggest road project.The Government's re-introduction of spatial planning is welcome. It has a critical role to play in areas like the estuary, enabling growth to be co-ordinated and connected both locally and nationally, complementing and supporting UK growth.The estuary was explicitly recognised in government guidance, but London and county spatial plans will be produced individually. It is a national imperative that spatial planning for the estuary is delivered.Linked to this, the estuary needs the tools for the job. In The Times, Lord Heseltine called for development corporation powers across the whole Thames Estuary, led by the mayors of Kent and Essex. This will not be imminent, but the case for development corporations, investment zones, local development orders and similar mechanisms to ease growth, speed delivery and maximise the opportunities of private investment in a major industrial corridor is overwhelming.In delivering this, political support will also be critical. The Government needs to recognise the national opportunity the Thames Estuary presents, but so too do the MPs and the councils, both now and post-local government reorganisation.Local MPs have already formed an all-party parliamentary group to support fair growth, recognising the importance of skills, jobs and business growth to their constituents in an Estuary corridor which includes areas of acute deprivation.The triple whammy of stalled Kentish devolution, mayoral delays and the loss of the growth board have not gone unnoticed in Westminster. And the councils themselves, with the potential for major changes of political control as reorganisation takes hold, must similarly hold the line.David Godfrey is director of Quintain Consulting Ltd and past director of the Thames Estuary Growth Board

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REGENERATION

Regeneration: Hiding in plain sight

By David Godfrey | 15 May 2026

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