Minister for Housing and Local Growth Kris Hopkins MP has visited the Solent Enterprise Zone's developments.

He toured Fareham College's new Centre of Excellence CEMAST, spoke to people working on the project and viewed plans for Fareham Borough Council's new Innovation Centre.

During his visit the Minister also announced confirmation of more than £7 million in government funding in infrastructure within the Enterprise Zone that will enable comprehensive redevelopment of the Waterfront area to create a vibrant new complex of commercial and leisure businesses and new homes.

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Minister Hopkins said: "DCLG have agreed a significant investment of £7.09 million to prepare the Zone’s Gosport Waterfront site for development at the Solent Enterprise Zone at Daedalus. The grant will be used to help to unlock the Waterfront's full potential by making the site more attractive to investors looking to locate onto the Enterprise Zone. It will fund the construction of over 1km of roads to substantially improve road access to the site and help to develop 8,000 sq m of employment space in the short term - with the potential to deliver a further 73,000 sq m of space in the period up to 2021 and create up to 1,000 jobs for the area."

CEMAST will open to students in September 2014 and be the new home for the college’s Automotive, Engineering and Manufacturing courses. The site will be the central training facility for more than 900 full time and part time students, and act as the main learning centre for students in apprenticeship programmes. The Minister saw first hand how the new campus has been designed to provide students with the perfect setting to train for their chosen career.

(CD/MH)