Blears to detail £52m Thames Gateway green centre

Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Hazel Blears is set to detail plans for a £52m Thames Gateway Institute for Sustainable Development at the Thames Gateway Forum next week.

Plans for the Institute, which is designed to be a centre of research excellence for sustainable technologies, were originally announced in the Thames Gateway Delivery Plan, published last year.

Private sector investors in the project include:

• Arup
• HSBC
• Jones LangLasalle
• National Physical Laboratory
• ProLogis
• Qinetiq

Imperial College, UCL and UEL universities are also involved, as well as the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation and the South East England Development Agency.

The Institute will also be partnered with China's eco-city project in Shanghai.

It will focus its research on construction, energy and waste with facilities at Dartford and Dagenham.