What comes next?

New Build Construction: factory-led, low-carbon housing at scale

AI Healthcare: safe AI in everyday NHS care, from pilot to routine use

Skills Programmes: employer-led training across construction, clean energy, logistics, digital and employability

AI Unlocked: building AI capability, from SME adoption and leadership to 16–24 employability

Venture Building: new technology companies around ports and clean energy

Local Authority Innovation: three boroughs using AI on shared public service challenges

Our pipeline

The Hive

The Hive at London Gateway is a central amenity hub designed to support the Thames Freeport by fostering trade, innovation, skills development, and local regeneration. It aims to serve as a focal point for businesses, regulators, and investors, providing world-class facilities to drive economic growth.

  • A dedicated team at DP World London Gateway delivering training across the Freeport area

  • Targets: 1,125 participants, 100 training days, 75% completion and 30 local businesses engaged, to 31 October 2027

Gateway Academy Scholarship

The scholarship has run across two Year 11 cohorts in Tilbury. In 2024/25 all 26 scholars completed their GCSEs, attendance ran above 96%, and every student enrolled in post-16 education. This continues support for the 25 current Year 11 scholars into Year 12 and 13. Up to £1,000 per scholar per year towards travel, equipment, books and interview clothing, plus UCAS support, professional mentoring and employer visits, released against engagement and progress.

  • An exceptional Scholarship Programme taking Tilbury students from Year 11 to Year 13

  • Impact: all 26 scholars in 2024/25 completed their GCSEs, attendance above 96%, and all enrolled in post-16 education

  • Next: 25 current scholars supported into Years 12 and 13, with up to £1,000 each per year

Tilbury Library

Year 3 of Thames Freeport support for extended, staffed opening hours. Footfall has grown from 23,000 in 2024/25 to 42,000 in 2025/26. Delivery now sits directly with Thames Freeport rather than through a delivery partner.

It funds staffing for extended hours: study space, digital inclusion, employability support and community learning.

  • Year 3 of support for extended, staffed hours, digital inclusion and employability support

  • Impact: footfall has grown from 23,000 in 2024/25 to 42,000 in 2025/26

  • Next: 500 more visits, 50+ people through digital and learning activity and 10+ events, funded through 2027

Candidat.ai

It aggregates jobs across the UK market and personalises commendations, improving them with user feedback. In a Thurrock mid-pilot, 90 users tried the platform: 68% found opportunities they had not previously seen, 90% went on to apply, and the system parsed close to 30,000 vacancies.

  • An AI job-matching platform personalising UK vacancy recommendations for local jobseekers

  • Impact: 90 users in a Thurrock pilot, 68% found opportunities they had not seen, 90% applied, close to 30,000 vacancies parsed

  • Next: up to 1,000 licences for 12 months, delivered with Thurrock Council

Unloc: Spark Tank

A Thurrock pilot, Year 1 of a three-year vision. A roadshow reaches 300 young people, two-day bootcamps take 90 through idea development, business planning and pitching, and micro-grants of up to £1,000 back 8 young people to launch a venture, with mentoring and wrap-around support.

  • A youth enterprise programme in Thurrock: road show, bootcamps and micro-grants of up to £1,000

  • Impact: 300 young people reached, 90 through business planning and pitching, and 8 backed to launch a venture

  • Next: at least 8 new local jobs and around £430,000 of regional social value

Youth Social Action Fund

Led by Thurrock CVS, the fund supports youth-led projects across wellbeing, community safety, healthy and active lives, and belonging. It runs through two funding rounds with a youth assessment panel, aligned to the national #iwill movement for youth social action. It commenced in July 2026.

  • A youth-led grants fund for wellbeing, community safety, healthy lives and belonging

  • Impact: commenced July 2026, aligned to the national #iwill movement, with a youth assessment panel

  • Freeport contribution: £30,000

Ports and Logistics Innovation Lab

The Ports and Logistics Lab is a technology scouting and piloting programme delivered by Thames Freeport and L Marks, designed to identify, test, and scale innovative, market-ready solutions across real-world logistics and port operations. Working with Ford Dagenham, DP World London Gateway, and the Port of Tilbury, the programme connects technology suppliers with operational challenges and enables live pilot deployments within partner sites.

  • Challenge-led innovation: Focused on key operational priorities, including vehicle logistics at Ford Dagenham, occupier engagement and estate intelligence at DP World London Gateway, port operations intelligence at the Port of Tilbury, and an open wildcard category for broader innovation opportunities.

  • End-to-end pilot delivery: Sources and evaluates technology providers through a global scouting process, culminating in Pitch Day, live operational pilots, and a structured evaluation and handover of results to partner organisations.

AI Healthcare

Thames Freeport is continuing it’s programmes focusing on healthcare supporting the safe adoption of AI in everyday NHS care looking at a number of strands:

  • Governance, procurement and assurance to move pilots into long-term use

  • A shared, supplier-neutral model built on work across GP practices

  • Designed to apply across primary, community and secondary care

AI Unlocked

Thames Freeport is working with Avencera to deliver AI Unlocked, a free programme designed to build practical AI capability across businesses, leaders and young people across the Thames Freeport area:

  • Builds practical AI skills and confidence across businesses, leaders and young people

  • Four pathways: small-business adoption, leadership, student entrepreneurship and 16–24 employability

  • Built on evaluated pilot courses and research into local demand

  • Practical teaching, tools and real-world applications

Venture Building

Thames Freeport is planning a dedicated studio creating technology companies around ports, logistics, clean energy and manufacturing

  • Ventures built around identified industry needs rather than waiting for them
    to emerge

  • Connects new companies with public and private customers from the outset

  • Access to venture-building expertise, technology infrastructure, investment
    and partners

Local Authority Innovation

Thames Freeport is working across our Local Authority Parners and looking at public service pressures

  • Uses AI, improved data and shared innovation across the three boroughs

  • The Public Services Demonstrator identifies challenges and co-designs solutions

  • Creates reusable governance, procurement and adoption models across five priority areas

5G Infrastructure

Thames Freeport is deploying private, controlled-access 5G networks across its three Freeport tax sites, the Port of Tilbury, Ford Dagenham, and DP World London Gateway, in partnership with Verizon UK Limited. The initiative provides secure, high-performance connectivity that supports advanced digital technologies, automation, and more efficient operations, while creating a platform for long-term innovation and economic growth across the region.

  • Enabling operational transformation: Delivers secure, low-latency connectivity to support automation, real-time data sharing, and enhanced operational efficiency across all three sites.

  • Driving innovation and growth: Acts as a catalyst for wider innovation programmes, helping to attract investment, foster industry collaboration, and create regional skills and employment opportunities.

Retrofit Year 2

The Regional Retrofit Programme is driving the large-scale upgrade of social housing across the Thames Freeport area, covering Barking & Dagenham, Havering, and Thurrock. Building on earlier demonstrator projects, including the Becontree estate retrofit trial and development of a green product catalogue, the programme has entered a mobilisation phase led by Rainmaking Innovation Ltd and its consortium partners to establish the governance, investment, and delivery structures needed for long-term retrofit deployment at scale.

  • Scaling retrofit delivery: Develops borough-level delivery vehicles, governance frameworks, investment models, and supply chains to enable the efficient retrofit of social housing across the region.

  • Creating a replicable model: Establishes a blueprint delivery vehicle in Barking & Dagenham that can be replicated across Havering and Thurrock, accelerating the transition from pilot projects to large-scale implementation.

Regional New Build Programme

The Regional New Build Programme is working to establish a modern, manufacturing-led approach to new-build housing across the Thames Freeport area, where traditional construction methods are struggling to meet demand or attract the investment needed to transform the sector.

Building on earlier exploratory work, the current phase, delivered with Rainmaking and partners, is evaluating and validating an end-to-end industrialised construction system, developing a digitised planning intelligence framework starting in Thurrock to assess candidate housing sites, and building a green product catalogue and pattern book of standardised housing designs.

It's also developing a manufacturing cluster prospectus aimed at attracting inward investment in local, low-carbon manufacturing capacity, laying the groundwork to scale delivery from the following financial year.

Explore the Thames Freeport impact report

Overview

Get to know Thames Freeport - the three tax sites, the region it serves and the growth it's built to unlock. Read more >

Projects delivered

See what a year of delivery looks like: skills, health and infrastructure on the ground, plus six funded community projects. Read more >

Vision

Looks ahead to 2045, summarising impact delivered so far and the long-term Growth Plan for jobs, homes, health and investment. Read more >

Social value

Find out how local residents are helping shape the Growth Plan, and what the RSA Social Value Commission recommends. Read more >