Huge boost for UK’s first Universal Studios theme park with 500-room hotel – as final sign off ‘in the pipeline’
BRITAIN is set to receive a huge tourism boost with a new thrill-seeking Universal Studios theme park.
Twenty thousand jobs will be created to build the attraction on a 476-acre site to help turbo charge the economy.
Millions of holiday-makers already enjoy popular rides at their theme parks including Revenge of the Mummy, Harry Potter and The Simpsons.
Rachel Reeves is looking at the proposals with a final decision about the site in Bedfordshire understood to be in the pipeline.
The Chancellor will unveil growth plans this week in a major speech that will give the green light for expansion at Heathrow Airport.
Officials are understood to be looking at government involvement in the plans such as road and rail improvements.
Treasury coffers would be boosted by an estimated £35 billion to the economy when the Universal project is being built and for the first 25 years after its doors open.
The project, which will be 45 miles from London, will plough £14 billion into Treasury coffers in tax revenue in the coming years.
The firm already has theme parks in America, China, Japan and Singapore but the project will require special permission from Ministers to ensure the planning system isn’t held up.
The site will be part of a huge regeneration plan which will include major infrastructure rail links connecting towns between Oxford and Cambridge.
It will also come with a 500-room hotel to accommodate some of the visitors.
Tourism Minister Chris Bryant recently told MPs: “I cannot enter into the precise details of the negotiations, but they are going well.
“I am hopeful that this will be absolutely transformational for the British tourism industry if we manage to pull it off.”
Mohammad Yasin, who represents Bedford in Parliament, recently said: “To have such a huge global brand like Universal Studios invest in Britain would be fantastic.”
Any decision would come after Ms Reeves faced a backlash from companies who have to pay increased national insurance contributions, helping to raise £25 billion.