The Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corporation is set to escape government plans to roll its powers into the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), civil servants have indicated.

The body, which was set up in 2003 by the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) to regenerate the Thurrock area, is now expected to exist beyond its expected end date in April 2011.

In January, former communities minister Shahid Malik announced that the body would be subsumed into the HCA in order to “strengthen” the regeneration expertise provided to the area. This would have involved it losing its planning powers to the HCA as well as its staff being transferred.

CLG says all quangos are “under review” and it expects to make a formal announcement on the future of both the Thurrock body and its twin, the London Thames Gateway Development Coroporation soon.

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