East of England

infobox England region | name = East of England| short_name = Eastern
hq = Cambridge
imagename =

status = Region
area_km2= 19,120
area_mi2= 7,382
area_rank= 2nd
density = 282/km² (2001)
nuts= UKH
euro= East of England
population = 5,388,140 (2001)
population_rank= 4th
gdp_rank= 3rd
gdp= 16,086 (2002)
assembly = East of England
development_agency = EEDA
election = not directly elected
url = http://www.eera.gov.uk
The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. It was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

Its population as of the 2001 census was 5,388,140. The area is mostly low-lying, and the highest place is an unnamed point near the hill of Ivinghoe Beacon, Buckinghamshire in the South East region, reaching 249 m (817 ft). Peterborough, Luton and Southend-on-Sea are the region's most populous urban areas. The southern part of the region lies in the London commuter belt.

Historical use

Before the creation of the East of England region there had been a smaller standard statistical region of East Anglia which did not include Essex, Hertfordshire or Bedfordshire. They had previously been included in the South East region. The East of England civil defence region shared the boundaries of the current region.

Common use

In common usage the easterly parts of this area, have long been and, continue to be known as East Anglia. The areas closer to London are more commonly called part of the South East with Hertfordshire and Essex included in the "Home Counties".

Local government

The official region consists of the following subdivisions:

Regional assembly

An East of England Regional Assembly exists to co-ordinate the work of the local councils in the area and provides other functions; it is not an elected body. It is based in Flempton on the A1101 north-west of Bury St Edmunds.

Economy

The former electricity company for the area, Eastern Electricity, has the area's distribution now looked after by (French) EDF Energy.

Hertfordshire

The Greater Watford area is home to Camelot Group (owners of the National Lottery), British Waterways, the UK headquarters of international firms Total Oil and Skanska construction, retailers TK Maxx, Majestic Wine, Mothercare, and Costco, Leavesden Film Studios, Sanyo UK, Olympus UK Kenwood and Beko electronic goods manufacturers, Wetherspoons pub chains, the European HQ of the Hilton hotel group and Nestlé Waters. Comet Group plc is in Rickmansworth. Renault UK is in Maple Cross. In Elstree and Borehamwood (close to the A1 motorway) are the Elstree Studios, where the "" films were made and more recently "Big Brother", and Hasselblad UK is based in Elstree. Borehamwood is also home to BBC Elstree and Pizza Hut UK. The Boy's Brigade, DSG International (owners of Currys and PC World), while 3Com, Epson UK, Steria (formerly Bull and Honeywell), and Kodak have their UK bases in Hemel Hempstead. In Welwyn Garden City are the headquarters of the Thresher Group and the UK headquarters of Xerox and Hoffmann–La Roche. "Shredded Wheat" and "Shreddies" are manufactured in the town by Nestlé, at least until 2008. Tesco is based in Cheshunt and Computacenter in Hatfield. Polaroid UK, Premier Foods and Viglen are in St Albans.

Bedfordshire

Moto Hospitality have their headquarters at Toddington in Bedfordshire (at the service station). Luton is home to easyJet, InBev, Vauxhall, the Bay Restaurant Group (owner of Slug and Lettuce), and the UK headquarters of Electrolux (owner of AEG and Zanussi), Chevrolet UK, and Saab Great Britain. Its neighbour in Dunstable is home to Whitbread. Bedford is home to Fujifilm UK. Autoglass is in nearby Cardington. Kier Group is in Sandy.

East Anglia

The economy in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk is traditionally mostly agricultural. Nationally known companies include Bernard Matthews and Norwich Union in Norwich, Greene King and Branston Pickle in Bury St Edmunds, and Campbell Soup in Kings Lynn. Lotus Cars are at Hethel. In Newmarket is the base of the UK horse racing industry. The main water company for the area, AWG plc is based in Huntingdon. Around Cambridge on numerous science parks, are high technology companies which form the so-called Silicon Fen. Cambridgeshire has a few RAF bases. The USAF still have bases in Suffolk. Subway UK (restaurants) is in Great Shelford. British Sugar is based in Peterborough, as is Perkins Engines. News International have a main office and Indesit (owner of Hotpoint) have their UK headquarters there. The Scout Association is headquartered in Gilwell Park in south Essex and Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) are in Basildon. Clinton Cards is in Loughton.

Education

Essex and Southend-on-Sea LEAs have selective schools. The others do not. Nine out of the top ten schools in the region (by A level results) are either in Essex or Southend-on-Sea. However, at GCSE, the best performing LEA is Hertfordshire, followed by Cambridgeshire and Southend-on-Sea. Suffolk also performs better than the England average of 45.8% attaining 5 grades A-C including Maths and English. In general, the region performs well at GCSE, with only Luton being low performing. Thurrock and Peterborough are next lowest, but are not underperforming areas. At A level, the best performing area is Southend-on-Sea, followed by Cambridgeshire and Essex. No other areas are above the England average. Thurrock is the least performing area, followed closely by Luton. At A level, Norfolk does not perform well for a rural county.

Cambridge has an eponymous very well known university as well as a second, much less well-known one. There are also other towns and cities in the region which have universities including Norwich (University of East Anglia) and Hatfield (University of Hertfordshire).

Top twenty state schools in the East of England (2007 A level results)

* 1. Colchester Royal Grammar School (1323)
* 2. King Edward VI Grammar School (Chelmsford)
* 3. Chelmsford County High School
* 4. Colchester County High School
* 5. Southend High School for Boys
* 6. Southend High School for Girls
* 7. Hockerill Anglo-European College, Bishop's Stortford
* 8. Hills Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge
* 9. Westcliff High School for Boys, Westcliff-on-Sea
* 10. Westcliff High School for Girls, Westcliff-on-Sea
* 11. Wymondham High School
* 12. The Broxbourne School
* 13. St Alban's Catholic High School, Ipswich
* 14. Farlingaye High School, Woodbridge, Suffolk
* 15. St Martin's School, Brentwood
* 16. St Benedict's Roman Catholic Upper School, Bury St Edmunds
* 17. The King's School, Peterborough
* 18. The Boswells School, Chelmsford
* 19. Loreto College, St Albans
* 20. Roundwood Park School, Harpenden (931)

Local media

* The BBC East region is based in Norwich, where the "Look East" regional programme is based. The BBC East region also includes Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes and Northamptonshire. Anglia Television is also based in Norwich, which has the "Anglia Tonight" regional programme.
* BBC radios Norfolk, Suffolk, Three Counties, Cambridgeshire and Essex.
* Commercial radio stations include Kiss 105-108, Q103 Cambridge, The Beach (Lowestoft), SGR-FM (Ipswich), 96.9 Chiltern FM (Bedford), 97.6 Chiltern FM (Dunstable), Mercury 96.6 (St Albans), Radio Broadland, 99.9 Radio Norwich, North Norfolk Radio, KL.FM 96.7 (Kings Lynn), Hereward FM (Peterborough), Lite FM 106.8 (Peterborough), SGR Colchester, Ten 17 (Harlow), and Essex FM (Chelmsford).
* Local newspapers include the "Bedfordshire on Sunday", "Cambridge Evening News", "East Anglian Daily Times", "Eastern Daily Press", "Evening Gazette (Essex)", "Evening Star (Ipswich)", "Norwich Evening News" and the "Times & Citizen (Bedford)".

ee also

* East of England (European Parliament constituency)
* East of England Regional Assembly
* List of schools in the East of England

External links

* [http://www.direct.gov.uk/Dl1/Directories/LocalCouncils/LocalGovernmentByRegion/fs/en?CONTENT_ID=4003594&chk=sZ9xcb Government's list of councils in the East of England]
* [http://www.statistics.gov.uk/popest_mid00.asp Office for National Statistics]
* [http://www.go-east.gov.uk Government Office for the East of England]
* [http://www.eeda.org.uk East of England Development Agency]
* [http://www.visiteastofengland.com Official Visitor site for the East of England]
* [http://www.eera.gov.uk East of England Regional Assembly]
* [http://www.eeia.com East of England International]