Valley Ridge will bring a significant boost for the local Suffolk economy

Once Valley Ridge is open we expect there to be 1,800 direct jobs, all of which are additional as the existing site supports no employment.

Accounting for indirect and induced employment effects, there are expected to be 2,000 net additional jobs, of which 1,800 are expected to be taken by Suffolk residents.

Workers are expected to spend £890,000 per year, of which £223,000 is expected to occur in local town centres.

Workers are expected to generate up to £46m in additional economic activity per annum, and up to £18m in additional tax revenues per annum.

The Proposed Development is expected to attract 975,000 visitors each year, of which 428,000 will be overnight visitors and 548,000 will be day visitors.

Visitors are expected to spend at least £1.8m in Suffolk (outside Valley Ridge) each year on retail, food and beverage, and other leisure activities.

New jobs for Suffolk

Given that Valley Ridge is a new leisure offer, it will attract new visitors and spending to the area.

We can break down the areas in which people will be able to find work as follows:

Research on tourism expenditure in Suffolk found a jobs multiplier of 1.5 – in other words, a new job elsewhere will be created for every two jobs on site. When taking into account the additional expenditure by visitors and other additional figures it is estimated that the proposed development will provide full or part-time employment for up to 2,000 people. Approximately 1,800 of these jobs will go residents in Suffolk.

Employee expenditure

The large numbers of workers at the proposed development will be expected to spend locally, supporting additional economic activity. Annual worker expenditure is estimated to be £890,000; however, given the large variety of food options available on-site, much of this spend is estimated to occur within Valley Ridge. Therefore, a 75% displacement of total spend has been applied in order to remain conservative, equating to an estimated £220,000 of additional spend in local centres.

Visitor spending outside Valley Ridge

There will be some spending in local and regional centres, due to guests travelling to nearby places like Ipswich, visiting another tourist attraction elsewhere in Suffolk and using facilities whilst on their way to or from the resort. There will therefore be additional benefits to Suffolk, in addition to the other economic benefits that have been identified.

Research indicates that overnight visitors will spend £1.5m and that day visitors will spend £288,500 outside the development. This equates to about £2m total spend outside the development in Suffolk every year.

A full report on the economics of the proposals will be submitted with the application.

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