Pfizer Update

Dover District Council is welcoming major news that a key economic partnership for Kent, Essex and East Sussex has selected the Pfizer site at Sandwich as its first choice for Enterprise Zone status for the future.

Members of the Kent, Essex and East Sussex Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) met last week to consider priorities for bids for Enterprise Zone status. The Government has already awarded the important status to 11 areas, and has invited bids for a further 10 sites, to be submitted by 30 June. The LEP selected the Pfizer site as its first choice for Enterprise Zone status, which if given the go ahead by Government would bring a range of benefits for businesses at the location.

This also follows an important announcement from Pfizer last week that it will retain some of its pharmaceutical sciences operation at Sandwich, preserving around 350 jobs. Pfizer has said that it will continue a phased exit of the rest of the site by the end of 2012, and will review its retained operation within a few years, as part of its business planning.

Cllr Paul Watkins, Leader of Dover District Council, said: "These are important developments for the area. The granting of Enterprise Zone status would bring a major boost to businesses looking to locate in the area, and the announcement that around 350 jobs are being retained means that the site is being kept open in a way that maintains a presence and helps to attract further opportunities to the location. This is set to provide a range of excellent opportunities to local businesses and to Pfizer staff, and to open the doors to a wide range of economic benefits for the future."