Enterprize Zones - what a waste

The Royal Docks has been made an Enterprize Zone by Mayor Boris click link copying the creation of Docklands by all-time loser Michael Hesseltine. Great towers rise out of the former West India Dock - as seen from Greenwich (above) but what has been gained at what cost?  Enterprize Zones attract businesses by giving them tax relief - stimulating mobile fly-by-night dodgy schemesters like banks and financial services. If we subsidised coalmines, steel or carmaking, would they be our main industries now? + on top of the hidden subsidy of lower taxes, we've added billions and billions of free infrastructure. Limehouse Link tunnel £293 million, Jubilee Line Extension £3.2 billion, Docklands Light Railway £77 million (1st bit) +  

Royal Mint Street Junction⁸ to Bank. Cost: £149 million.  Poplar to Beckton Cost: £224 million. Mudchute⁹ to Lewisham Cost: £200 million. Canning Town to King George V Cost: £140 million. King George V to Woolwich Arsenal Cost: £150 million. Canning Town to Stratford International¹⁰

Cost: No estimate. Gallions Reach to Dagenham Dock Cost: £250 million. Estimated Completion date: 2015. BBC

• AND Crossrail £16 billion estimate CBI

Add to that the local roads, sewers, electricity supply, all paid for by the state to subsidise private enterprise. Then add the benefits paid to all the construction employees thrown on the dole when the flagship "One Canada Square" (Canary Wharf tower) developers went bankrupt {Wiki}

Perhaps worst of all, the featherbedding of the financial services industry has made them reliant on handouts from the state - and ultimately contributed to the complacency driven "bailout" of the banks (what other industry would receive a bailout?)

So, yes there are gleaming towers on the former West India Docks - but what else could we have had for the same money? If we had spent it on new council houses would the property market have overheated so much? If we had spent it on upgrading the rail system, would the economy of the whole country have been healthier?  Enterprize Zones, are they really a welcome addition to the landscape. Did anyone ask you?