Enfield Council’s Cabinet has approved a long-term economic growth plan that aims to make the borough London’s leading industrial and entrepreneurial centre by 2040. The strategy, called Enfield Delivers, sets out priorities for business growth, investment, employment and skills.
The plan is organised around three priorities: building a productive and resilient economy, creating thriving places, and developing a skilled and work-ready population. The council intends to work with partners to help local businesses grow, attract investment, connect residents with jobs and strengthen skills and apprenticeships.
Four sectors in focus
Four sectors are identified as having particular potential: future-facing manufacturing; construction and net zero; logistics and wholesale; and creative industries. The council selected these sectors for their potential to offer opportunities for higher-quality jobs, improved productivity and investment.
The choice reflects the range of activity the strategy is intended to support. Manufacturing and logistics form part of Enfield’s industrial economy, while construction and net-zero work link growth to development and environmental transition. Creative industries are included alongside these sectors as another area the council believes can contribute to future employment and investment. The plan sets a borough-wide direction rather than announcing a single project or a fixed number of new jobs.
Enfield’s existing economic profile is part of the case made for the strategy. The borough has about 14,000 businesses, most of them small or medium-sized, and the fourth-largest amount of industrial land among London boroughs. Enfield also has London’s fourth-largest area of green space. These are presented as assets that can sit alongside economic expansion, rather than as measures of what the new plan has already delivered.
Growth through places and skills
The plan links economic development to the places where residents live and work. The council points to regeneration programmes, investment in town centres and improvements to transport, digital and energy infrastructure as ways to unlock future growth. It does not announce specific funding totals or a timetable for individual infrastructure schemes in the approval announcement.
Skills and access to work are another part of the framework. The council says the plan is intended to connect residents with jobs and strengthen skills and apprenticeships. In discussion before Cabinet approval, scrutiny members asked how opportunities would reach local residents and how job quality would be assessed. Officers described working with schools, colleges, employers and developers, and said the accompanying action plan would include measures on job quality, skills and career progression. Those comments were made during scrutiny and should be distinguished from specific commitments announced with the Cabinet decision.
The earlier scrutiny discussion also described a supporting action plan, governance arrangements and a performance framework for monitoring progress. The strategy considers how economic performance will be measured and was developed with businesses, voluntary organisations and public-sector organisations. The shared vision is intended to ensure that growth benefits every part of the borough.
The strategy is intended to guide action through to 2040. The council has described a formal launch in November 2026 and the start of action-plan implementation thereafter, subject to Cabinet approval. The approval now establishes the long-term policy framework; it is not evidence that the proposed growth, jobs or investment have already materialised.
