Legal and General will increase the number of workers in their Hove offices from 1,300 to 1,800 staff by 2020 after the decision to close offices in Surrey - currently home to 1,500 staff.

It is expected that the number of Legal and General staff will expand to 1,800 within the next two to four years and will be accommodated in existing company offices which are currently only part-occupied. 

Plans for the University of Sussex's new student village has been given the go-ahead. The decision will lead to the redevelopment of part of the campus to create 2,100 new bedrooms as well as a new building for the Students' Union and social facilities.  The university estimates that about 2,400 new permanent jobs will be created as a result of its campus redevelopment and work is expected to commence in January 2017.

An annual exciting, interactive engineering and science event!

Part of a nationwide programme, the Big Bang celebrates and raises the profile of young people's achievements in science and engineering. In 2017, The Big Bang Fair South East will be held on Wednesday 28th June at the South of England Showground near Ardingly, West Sussex. It is suitable for older primary students (key stage 2), as well as secondary students.

The Essex Employment and Skills Board's Education and Industry STEM Programme currently works with 30 secondary schools across Essex to develop greater links with local key industry contacts in order to promote the breadth of opportunities open to Essex young people.

Over the next 20 years, Basildon Council and its development partner Barratt Homes/Wilson Bowden (BWB) will regenerate the town with up to 2,000 new homes, a new town centre college for up to 2,000 students, new cinema and new shops, offices and public squares that will bring the town alive.

Hundreds of millions of pounds of private sector investment is already being spent on this ambitious project that will create opportunity for local people and investors from across the globe.

This area of the town centre will be transformed into a major new public square. Focused on a new 8-12 screen cinema and hotel, restaurants, cafes and shops, this new destination will thrive through the daytime and into the evening.

There are many investment opportunities for the leisure and retail element of the scheme which is due to be delivered by 2017.

Station Square will be a lively public space, home to a multi-million pound new college and adjoining transport hub that will create a great first impression of Basildon for people arriving by train. A boulevard will connect Station Square with Gloucester Park, 100 hectares of green open space that is home to the Basildon Sporting Village.

A £160 million deal has been reached to build a biomass power plant capable of supplying 50,000 homes in Kent.

The project will be built by Danish engineering and contracting company BWSC after an investment by a fund managed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.

Set to be up and running by the summer of 2018, BWSC will run and maintain the site on a 20-year contract.

Much of the power will be delivered to the science estate Discovery Park in Sandwich, where it will be based, using virgin wood from the UK, saving about 100,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.

It will create around 300 jobs during its construction phase and 25 full-time jobs once operational.

Betteshanger, the former East Kent colliery, is being redeveloped into a landmark destination embracing Kent's mining heritage, green energy education and sustainable business. One of the largest brownfield sites in Kent, Betteshanger has stood derelict since the closure of the colliery in August 1989. Yet many people have no idea that we even had coalmines in Kent. All that is rapidly changing, however, thanks to the involvement of Hadlow College (now the Hadlow Group), who took ownership of the Betteshanger Colliery site in 2012.

Led by the Hadlow Group, the £40m project, which combines sustainable business and commerce with education, sustainable energy and tourism, will develop private sector investment, thousands of jobs, new education and training opportunities and high-quality commercial space.

Work on the first-phase Visitor Centre, encompassing the Kent Mining Museum and a Green Energy Centre, has begun and the centre is due to launch in spring 2017; with backing from the Heritage Lottery Foundation, the Kent Mining Museum will open next summer.

Commercial Quarter plans receive Ashford Borough Council backing to redevelop part of the town centre into a dynamic new business hub.  It will deliver 80,500 sq foot in the first phase of development at Dover Place including office space with retail and restaurants on the ground floor. 

Now the planning is approved, it allows the commercial Quarter to maximise the advantages of its location opposite Ashford International Station and become a major new business hub in the South East, creating 700 jobs. The Commercial Quarter is part of the council's Big 8 projects, which support the five-year Corporate Plan, with a crucial role in the future economic development of the borough and regeneration of the town centre.

Plans for a major new Waitrose foodstore at Eclipse Business Park in Maidstone have been submitted to the council. The new £14m Waitrose will support 200 construction jobs during the 12-month build and landscape programme. When it opens (set for early 2018) the store will employ 200 people and provide food, café, a small garden offering, home delivery and 'click and collect' for John Lewis.