The Thames Gateway – encompassing much of East London, South Essex and North Kent – is Europe’s largest regeneration project.

The Government is committed to a target of 20,000 new homes in the Gateway by 2016. It is planned that some 194,000 new jobs will also be created in that same period. But if this challenging target is to be reached – and if the existing population is to benefit from these opportunities – there will need to be a quantum leap in aspiration and educational achievement right across the Gateway.