Template:Infobox England region 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. Essex has the highest population in the region.

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.

The area is one of the flattest in the UK. Cambridgeshire is part of The Fens. The lowest point in the UK is Holme Fen, which is 3 metres below sea level.

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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.

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".

For regions in England, the East of England has the lowest overall teenage pregnancy rate. Inside the East of England, the top-tier authority with the highest rate is Peterborough. The council district with the highest rate is Norwich closely followed by Great Yarmouth. For top-tier authorities, Hertfordshire has the lowest rate of teenage pregnancy. For council districts, Uttlesford in north-west Essex has the lowest rate.

The most deprived districts, according to the Indices of deprivation 2007 in the region are, in descending order - Great Yarmouth (58th in England), Norwich (62nd), Luton (87th), Peterborough (90th), and Ipswich (99th). At county level, after Luton and Peterborough, which have a similar level of deprivation, in descending order there is Southend-on-Sea then Thurrock.

The least deprived districts, in descending order - are South Cambridgeshire, Uttlesford, Mid Bedfordshire, East Hertfordshire, St Albans, Brentwood, Rochford, Chelmsford, Huntingdonshire, Mid Suffolk, Broadland, North Hertfordshire, Dacorum, Three Rivers, South Norfolk, East Cambridgeshire and Suffolk Coastal. At county level, the least deprived areas in the region, in descending order, are Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, with all three having a similar level of deprivation, then Essex.^[1]

In the 2010 General Election, there was an overall swing of 0.8% from the Liberal Democrats to the Conservatives, and Labour lost 10% of their vote.^[2] All of Hertfordshire and Suffolk is now Conservative, and were it not for North Norfolk being Liberal Democrat, the geographic area would be virtually completely Conservative. The region's electorate voted 47% Conservative, 24% Liberal Democrat, 20% Labour and 4% UKIP. Like other regions, the division of seats favours the dominant party in the region, and the Conservatives have 52, Lib Dems 4 (also Norwich South, Colchester and Cambridge) and Labour 2 (Luton South and Luton North).

An East of England Regional Strategy Board exists to co-ordinate the work of the local councils in the area and provides other functions. It is based in Flempton on the A1101 north-west of Bury St Edmunds. An East of England Development Agency also exists in the region. The Government maintains the Government office for the East of England. The East of England also elects MEPs for the East of England (European Parliament constituency).

The current version of the East of England Plan, a Revision of the Regional Spatial Strategy for the East of England, was published on 12 May 2008.^[3]

The official region consists of the following subdivisions:

Map	Ceremonial county	Shire county / unitary	Districts
	Essex	1. Thurrock U.A.
		2. Southend-on-Sea U.A.
		3. Essex	a.) Harlow, b.) Epping Forest, c.) Brentwood, d.) Basildon, e.) Castle Point, f.) Rochford, g.) Maldon, h.) Chelmsford, i.) Uttlesford, j.) Braintree, k.) Colchester, l.) Tendring
	4. Hertfordshire		a.) Three Rivers, b.) Watford, c.) Hertsmere, d.) Welwyn Hatfield, e.) Broxbourne, f.) East Hertfordshire, g.) Stevenage, h.) North Hertfordshire, i.) St Albans, j.) Dacorum
	Bedfordshire	5. Luton U.A.
		6. Bedford U.A.
		6. Central Bedfordshire U.A.
	Cambridgeshire	7. Cambridgeshire	a.) Cambridge, b.) South Cambridgeshire, c.) Huntingdonshire, d.) Fenland, e.) East Cambridgeshire
		8. Peterborough U.A.
	9. Norfolk		a.) Norwich, b.) South Norfolk, c.) Great Yarmouth, d.) Broadland, e.) North Norfolk, f.) King's Lynn and West Norfolk, g.) Breckland
	10. Suffolk		a.) Ipswich, b.) Suffolk Coastal, c.) Waveney, d.) Mid Suffolk, e.) Babergh, f.) St. Edmundsbury, g.) Forest Heath

The former electricity company for the area, Eastern Electricity, has the area's distribution now looked after by EDF Energy Networks at Fore Hamlet in Ipswich. EDF also look after London and most of the South-East.

The Greater Watford area is home to British Waterways, Taylor Woodrow Construction, the UK headquarters the international firm Total Oil, retailers TK Maxx, Bathstore, Majestic Wine, Mothercare, Costco UK, and Smiths Detection, Iveco UK Leavesden Film Studios, Sanyo UK, Europcar UK, Olympus UK, Kenwood and Beko electronic goods manufacturers, Wetherspoons pub chains, the European HQ of the Hilton hotel group and Nestlé Waters; in Garston is the UK headquarters of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, on the A412, and the Building Research Establishment is in Bricket Wood. Comet Group plc and Camelot Group (owners of the National Lottery), on the A4145, are in Rickmansworth. Ferrero UK (maker of Nutella and Kinder Chocolate) is in Croxley Green. Renault UK and Skanska UK (construction) are in Maple Cross.

In Elstree and Borehamwood (close to the A1 motorway) are the Elstree Studios, where the Star Wars 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), Sir Robert McAlpine, Bourne Leisure are based in Hemel Hempstead; where 3Com, Epson UK, Steria (formerly Bull and Honeywell), Alcon UK, and Kodak have their UK bases. Pure Digital (DAB radios) are in Kings Langley, the former home of Ovaltine until 2002.

In Welwyn Garden City are PayPoint, the former headquarters of First Quench Retailing until 2009 (formerly the Thresher Group) and Hostelling International, and the UK headquarters of Xerox, Cereal Partners, and Hoffmann–La Roche. Shredded Wheat and Shreddies were manufactured in the town by Nestlé (Cereal Partners) until April 2008. DuPont UK, EADS Astrium UK and MBDA UK (former BAe Dynamics), and a plant of GSK are in Stevenage. Tesco is based in Cheshunt. Computacenter, Denso UK, and T-Mobile UK are in Hatfield; Veolia Water Central Limited and the HQ of Ocado are next to each other on the A1001. Polaroid UK, Premier Foods and Viglen are in St Albans; also Murphy Oil Corp's USA, UK subsidiary, Murco Petroleum Ltd.

Johnson Matthey (materials for catalytic converters) has its main operations in Royston. Cash Converters UK is in Thundridge near Ware. Harlow has Pearson Education, the main research division of GlaxoSmithKline, the European headquarters of Pitney Bowes, and the main manufacturing plant of Raytheon UK.

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), Hain Celestial Group UK (who make Linda McCartney Foods), Thomson UK 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 and Wells & Young's Brewery (former Charles Wells). Autoglass is in nearby Cardington. Kier Group and the RSPB are in Sandy. Connells is in Leighton Buzzard. Jordans (cereal) and Liebherr Group UK are in Biggleswade. Trafficmaster Europe is at Cranfield University. Unilever have their main food research site (where low fat spreads were invented) at Colworth Science Park near Sharnbrook.

The economy in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk is traditionally mostly agricultural. Nationally known companies include Bernard Matthews, the RAC, Virgin Money and Aviva (formerly Norwich Union) in Norwich. In Carrow, to the east of the city, Colman's make a wide range of mustards, and Britvic make Robinsons squash, which was owned by Colman's until 1995. Greene King and Branston Pickle in Bury St Edmunds, and British Sugar make all their icing sugar and caster sugar there. Campbell Soup is made in Kings Lynn. Lotus Cars are at Hethel. In Newmarket is the base of the British horse racing industry and the National Horseracing Museum. The main water company for the area, AWG plc and International Audio Group are based in Huntingdon.

Around Cambridge on numerous science parks, are high technology (electronics and biochemistry) companies, such as ARM Holdings, Adder Technology, NEC Philips UK, Monsanto UK, and Play.com, and the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus at Hinxton which form the so-called Silicon Fen. Cambridgeshire has a few RAF bases. Marshall Aerospace is at Cambridge Airport. Syngenta UK is to the east of Cambridge, at Fulbourn. Premier Foods have a large plant in Histon and Impington making Robertson's and Hartley's jam, Smash instant potato, and Rose's marmalade. Addenbrooke's Hospital is a pioneering hospital in the UK, based at Cambridge Bio-Medical Campus.

Subway UK (restaurants) is in Great Shelford. Unwins Seeds is in Alconbury Weston next to the A1. British Sugar, Silver Spoon and the Billington Food Group are based in Peterborough, as is Perkins Engines. News International have a main office there and Indesit (owner of Hotpoint) have their UK headquarters in Woodston. Bauer Consumer Media (former EMAP) and the N&P Building Society are in Orton Northgate. BGL Group (Compare The Market) is in Orton Southgate.

The USAF still have bases in Suffolk. CLAAS UK, is based on the side of the A14 just west of Bury St Edmunds at The Saxhams, Zetor Tractors UK is in Downham Market, and New Holland UK (and also the UK base of Fiat-owned CNH Global) is in Basildon where there is a large tractor factory. BOCM Pauls is in Wherstead just south of Ipswich. The Port of Felixstowe is the UK's busiest container terminal and the 28th busiest in the world. Birds Eye, now no longer part of Unilever, now has its main factories in Lowestoft.

The Scout Association is headquartered in Gilwell Park in south Essex. Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) and SELEX Galileo (avionics) are in Basildon. Britvic is in Chelmsford, which is the historic home of the Marconi Company now run by BAE Systems at Great Baddow. Radar was developed in this area in the late 1930s. Federal Express Europe Inc is at Stansted Airport. Clinton Cards is in Loughton, where De La Rue has a banknote printing factory next to junction 5 of the M11, printing notes for the Bank of England and other countries. Countrywide plc is in Witham, Essex. In Thurrock are Harveys Furniture and Carpetright in Purfleet, and Unilever have a large margarine works there. P & G make soap (detergents) in West Thurrock. The army have a large base in Colchester, which is the home of the Parachute Regiment and 16th Air Assault Brigade. JobServe is in Tiptree. Martin McColl, the newsagents group, and Amstrad are in Brentwood, home to Ford of Europe at Warley, and the Dunton Technical Centre at Dunton Wayletts next to the A127.

As part of the transport planning system the Regional Assembly is under statutory requirement to produce a Regional Transport Strategy (RTS) to provide long term planning for transport in the region. This involves region wide transport schemes such as those carried out by the Highways Agency and Network Rail.^[4]

Within the region the local transport authorities carry out transport planning through the use of a Local Transport Plan (LTP) which outlines their strategies, policies and implementation programme.^[5] The most recent LTP is that for the period 2006-11. In the East of England region the following transport authorities have published their LTP online: Bedfordshire,^[6] Cambridgeshire,^[7] Essex,^[8] Hertfordshire,^[9] Luton U.A.,^[10] Norfolk,^[11] Peterborough U.A.,^[12] Southend-on-Sea U.A.,^[13] Suffolk,^[14] Thurrock U.A..^[15] Since 1 April 2009, when the county of Bedfordshire was split into two unitary councils,^[16] the Bedfordshire transport authority has ceased to exist, however it is the most recent LTP for the area.

The East of England region is covered by the Highways Agency operational area 6 and part of area 8. Major roads servicing these areas include the M1 Luton to Milton Keynes, M11 London to Cambridge, M25 through Essex, A1 London to Peterborough, A5 St. Albans to Milton Keynes , A11 London to Norwich, A12 London to Great Yarmouth, A14 Felixstowe to Rugby via Cambridge, A47 Great Yarmouth to Nuneaton and the A120 Harwich to Stansted. There are a number of proposed road developments throughout the region.

The region is serviced by Network Rail Route 5 West Anglia and Route 7 Great Eastern as well as parts of Route 6 North London Line and Thameside, Route 8 East Coast Main Line and Route 18 West Coast Main Line. Major rail lines run London to Norwich, London to Cambridge and King's Lynn, and London to Southend with a number of rural branch lines servicing the wider region. A major freight route also runs between the Port of Felixstowe and London.

The East of England has one international ferry port, Harwich International Port, which together with the Port of Felixstowe, the UK's largest container port, and the Port of Ipswich forms the Haven ports group. The East of England coast also holds a number of traditional fishing ports including the King's Lynn Docks, the Port of Lowestoft and Wells Harbour. There are also a number of ports on the Essex side of the Thames Estuary and river including Shell Haven and the Port of Tilbury.

In 2007 construction started on the Great Yarmouth Outer Harbour, a new container port for the east coast. There are also plans under consideration to run a ferry service to IJmuiden, west of Amsterdam from the new port.

The region has three public international airports, London Stansted Airport (former RAF Stansted Mountfitchet), London Luton Airport and Norwich International Airport (former RAF Horsham St Faith). It also includes a number of smaller local airfields that are licensed for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction these include Beccles Airport, Clacton Airport, Duxford Aerodrome and Peterborough/Sibson Airport.

There is a current proposal to expand the capacity of Stansted Airport. In March 2008 BAA Limited submitted a planning application for the construction of a second runway and terminal at the site. This has faced opposition from the Stop Stansted Expansion pressure group whose members believe the development is unsustainable. Stansted Airport has the unenvious position of being the UK's airport of choice for hijacked planes entering the UK's airspace, and as a result has seen some high profile hijackings in recent years.

Essex and Southend-on-Sea LEAs have selective schools. The others do not. Eight 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 Southend-on-Sea and Cambridgeshire. Essex, Central Bedfordshire and Norfolk also perform better than the England average of 49.8% attaining 5 grades A-C including Maths and English.

In general, the region performs well at GCSE, with only Peterborough being low performing. Thurrock and Luton are next lowest, but are not underperforming areas. At A level, the best performing area is Cambridgeshire, followed by Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Suffolk. Central Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire are also above the England average. Thurrock is the least performing area, followed closely by Luton and Peterborough. At A level, Norfolk does not perform well for a rural county. The Colchester Royal Grammar School is consistently the best school in England at A level.

School children in Hertfordshire are proportionately most likely to go to university, followed by Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire. Hertfordshire pupils are also most likely to stay on in education at 16.

There are twenty seven FE colleges (FECs) in the region.^[17] The largest FE college is Suffolk New College. The LSC regional office is based in Ipswich.

• 1. Colchester Royal Grammar School (1354)
• 2. King Edward VI Grammar School (Chelmsford)
• 3. Chelmsford County High School
• 4. Southend High School for Girls
• 5. Hockerill Anglo-European College, Bishop's Stortford
• 6. Westcliff High School for Boys, Westcliff-on-Sea
• 7. Colchester County High School
• 8. Southend High School for Boys
• 9. St Benedict's Roman Catholic Upper School, Bury St Edmunds
• 10. St Alban's Catholic High School, Ipswich
• 11. The King's School, Peterborough
• 12. Wymondham High School
• 13. Farlingaye High School, Woodbridge, Suffolk
• 14. Hills Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge
• 15. Sir John Lawes School, Harpenden
• 16. Westcliff High School for Girls, Westcliff-on-Sea
• 17. St John Payne Catholic Comprehensive School, Chelmsford
• 18. Watford Grammar School for Boys
• 19. Loreto College, St Albans
• 20. St Martin's School, Hutton, Essex
• 21. The Broxbourne School
• 22. Watford Grammar School for Boys
• 23. Dame Alice Owen's School, Potters Bar
• 24. Freman College, Buntingford
• 25. Wymondham College

The main university in the region (and also highly important in England generally) is the University of Cambridge.^[18]

There are seven universities in the region and two higher education colleges (Norwich University College of the Arts and Writtle College near Chelmsford). 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). Suffolk does not have a university, but has a campus of the University of Essex - University Campus Suffolk.

For England, the region has the highest proportion of post-graduate students - thanks mainly to those at Cambridge. Of those undergraduate students studying in the region, around 45% are native to the region - most go elsewhere, and the region is a net exporter of students. Around 40% of the region's students are from other regions. The University of Cambridge, due to the high calibre required for entrance, has a mix of students from all over the UK. Around 55% of students in the region come from either the East of England, the South East or London. Very few come from anywhere in the north of England, especially the North East (less than 1% - and most of those will be to Cambridge). Only around 3% come from the neighbouring East Midlands - a much higher proportion of East of England native students go to study in the East Midlands however.

The University of Cambridge receives almost three times as much funding as any other university in the region, due to its huge research grant - the largest in England (and the UK). The next largest, by funding, is UEA in Norwich. The University of Essex and Cranfield University also have moderately large research grants, but no other universities in the region do. The largest university by student numbers is ARU, and the next biggest is Cambridge. The smallest is Essex.

For total income to universities, Cambridge receives around £1 billion - around six times larger than any other university in the region. The University of Bedfordshire receives the least income. Cambridge has the lowest drop-out (discontinuation) rate in the region. Once graduated, over 50% of students stay in the region, with 25% going to London and 10% going to the South East. Very few go elsewhere - especially the north of England.

East Anglia is one of the driest parts of the United Kingdom with average rainfall ranging from 450mm to 750mm. This is usually because low pressure systems and weather fronts from the Atlantic have lost a lot of their moisture over land (and therefore are usually a lot weaker) by the time they reach Eastern England. However The Fens in Cambridgeshire is prone to flooding should a strong system affect the area.

Winter (mid November - mid March) is mostly cool but cold easterly winds can affect the area from the continent, these can bring occasionally heavy snowfall if the winds interact with a low pressure system from the Atlantic or the Mediterranean. Northerly winds can also be cold but are not usually as cold as easterly winds. Westerly winds usually bring milder but wetter weather. Southerly winds can also be mild (esp if they come from the Mediterranean or North Africa) but can also be chilly if coming from mainland Europe.

Spring (mid March - May) is a transitional season that can be chilly to start with but is usually warm by late-April/May. The weather at this time can be changeable and occasionally showery.

Summer (June - mid September) is usually warm & pleasant but continental air from mainland Europe or the Azores High can occasionally lead to hot and muggy weather. Westerly winds from the Atlantic can make the area cool and unsettled.

Autumn (mid September - mid November) is usually mild but can be changeable with some days being very unsettled and rainy and others being relatively warm & pleasant. An Indian summer can occasionally take place with September and early October having warm and settled weather.

• 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. ITV 1 Anglia is also based in Norwich, which has the Anglia Tonight regional programme. However, viewers in south Hertfordshire, Canvey Island and parts of south-western Essex are served by the Crystal Palace TV transmitters or Bluebell Hill, Kent TV transmitters and are only able to receive "BBC London News", "ITV1 London Tonight", or "BBC South-East News" as well as the "Meridian Tonight" regional news programmes... However Sky and Freesat satellite viewers are still able to receive BBC East in these areas for their complete eastern counties news stories.
• BBC radios Norfolk, Suffolk, Three Counties, Cambridgeshire and Essex.
• Commercial radio stations include are now mostly operated by Global Radio Groups Heart FM brand throughout the regionfor example, Heart FM (Southend and Chelmsford). Other local commercial stations include Southend Radio, Chelmsford Radio. * Local newspapers include the Bedfordshire on Sunday, Cambridge Evening News, East Anglian Daily Times, Eastern Daily Press, "Evening Echo (south Essex)", Evening Gazette (Essex), Evening Star (Ipswich), Peterborough Evening Telegraph, Norwich Evening News and the Times & Citizen.

• East of England (European Parliament constituency)
• East of England Regional Strategy Board
• East of England Development Agency
• Regions of England

Lists:

• List of future transport developments in the East of England
• List of schools in the East of England

• Government's list of councils in the East of England
• Office for National Statistics
• Government Office for the East of England
• East of England Development Agency
• Official Visitor site for the East of England
• Offiical Film and TV locations website for the East of England
• East of England Tourism
• East of England Regional Assembly
• East of England International
• East of England Business Community Directory