THOUSANDS of new jobs could be created in Dorset after the chancellor announced it would get its own Enterprise Zone.

The initiative would be based at Dorset Green, the former Winfrith Atomic Energy Authority site at Winfrith Newburgh.

The announcement in George Osborne’s Autumn Statement came after a bid from Purbeck District Council, site owner the Homes and Community Agency (HCA) and the Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

South Dorset MP Richard Drax, whose constituency office is on the site, said the move could create 3,000-5,000 jobs, with Atlas Elektronik looking to expand there.

“This is a rural part of Dorset where there aren’t that many good career paths and jobs that pay well. This will be a new business park for jobs that do just that,” he said.

“I’m absolutely delighted.”

Enterprise Zone status provides a host of benefits, including a five-year holiday from business rates for firms relocating there, plus support for superfast broadband and a streamlined planning process.

Purbeck council’s economy spokesperson Cllr Cherry Brooks said: “This is a great opportunity to stimulate regeneration that will increase jobs, not only in the district but across Dorset. It also provides the impetus to create an advanced engineering cluster of excellence here in Purbeck.”

Dorset LEP chairman Gordon Page said: “It will help unlock the huge potential of the Dorset Green site, enabling existing businesses to expand and encouraging others to join them, helping to boost the rural economy and contributing to Dorset's overall competitiveness.”

The district council and Dorset County Council are acquiring 6.2 hectares of land on the 40hectare estate from the Homes and Communities Agency after the current leaseholder went into administration.

Other announcements in the Autumn Statement included two substantial U-turns – the scrapping of further changes to child tax credit and the lifting of the threat of cuts to police budgets.

Revenue-raising measures included the confirmation of an apprenticeship levy, set at 0.5 per cent of an employer’s wage bill. Mr Osborne said every employer would receive a £15,000 allowance to offset against the levy, meaning businesses with pay bills of less than £3million would not pay it.

Higher rates of stamp duty – three per cent above the normal rate – will be imposed on the purchase of extra properties such as buy-to-lets and second homes.

And there will be tougher rules on benefits, with the “support and conditionality” expected of jobseeker’s allowance claimants extended to more than a million more people.

Those signing on will have to attend the job centre every week for the first three months and there would be more efforts to get people with disabilities to get into work.