Whilst being generally supportive of policy SP3, and welcoming the new employment designations, the LEP has the following concerns:

- there is neither reference to the East of England Forecasting Model's estimate of the number of jobs created as a consequence of growth to 2031 nor an estimate of employment floorspace expected to be created and therefore anticipated floorspace densities, making it impossible to make any sort of judgement over whether sufficient additional employment land is being designated in the plan

- whilst the plan seeks to promote such higher order activities including research and development, policy SP3 contains no specific measures to promote such activities, which could be achieved through imposing a minimum proportion of B1(b) (research and development activities, restricting uses entirely to B1(b) activities or limits on the level of non B1 uses for one or more of the new employment sites

- the rollout of the new employment designations will be greatly assisted by partnerships of appropriate private and public interests to work collaboratively together to promote their delivery, and policy SP3 needs to be explicit about the need for such arrangements to be put into place

- there is a failure to identify the need for employment related activities as part of the mix of uses on appropriate strategic housing sites; the LEP considers that at minimum there should be such a designation for either or both the North of Baldock and East of Luton strategic housing sites

- the absence of any new employment sites in Hitchin and only one small additional site in Letchworth means that there will be limited new employment opportunities in the district's two largest towns, and this should be addressed in the plan

- No specific policy to identify new employment activities within suitable smaller settlements within the district.