Free event to highlight RAF Lakenheath opportunities to local businesses

Businesses are being urged to seize opportunities being created as a result of $100 million investment in RAF Lakenheath.

A free event is being staged on October 22 to bring local, national and multi-national organisations together to see how they might work with each other.

The RAF Lakenheath improvements are part of the USAF’s programme for F35 fighter jets at the base and could provide opportunities for local contractors to provide services.

Get ready for growth, at Newmarket Racecourse, aims to bring together construction contractors with local businesses to explore potential opportunities and explain how to become part of supply chains. Local enterprises will also be able to find out how to utilise existing resources for skills, recruitment and capital investment.

Balfour Beatty, Galliford Try and Wates, three of the firms shortlisted to the preferred bidder stage for the Lakenheath project, will talk about how businesses can become part of their supply chain.

Councillor James Waters, Forest Heath District Council leader, said: “The USAF is investing more than $100 million in the base and we want to make sure local firms are in the best position to benefit from it.”

Get ready for growth starts at 9am and will be followed by lunch and chance to meet buyers. To attend, businesses should email Clare Harding at clare.harding@westsuffolk.gov.uk