If at first you don't succeed, try, try again – that would seem to be the view of business leaders in Plymouth who have said that they will progress plans to set up an Enterprise Zone in the city despite getting their bid turned down by government.

The final 10 EZs were revealed yesterday, following an initial tranche of 11 which were named by the Chancellor during the Budget earlier this year.

A bid to create an aviation-based hub at Newquay Cornwall Airport got the nod while a renewables and advanced manufacturing submission from Plymouth as well as a low-carbon themed bid from North and South Devon and Somerset was also turned down.

Key players in Plymouth's submission have already begun talks to investigate the possibility of self-declaring the city to be an EZ.

This would work by the city council agreeing to offer businesses at certain key sites tax breaks and a simplified planning regime, as well as other incentives, in order to make it more attractive to investors.

"There is a real opportunity to take the best aspects of the application and to demonstrate localism by awarding ourselves an EZ," said Professor Julian Beer, pro vice chancellor at Plymouth University.

And Cornwall, despite its success, is taking a similar stance by considering the possibility of setting up further zones in areas including Camborne, Pool, Redruth, Bodmin, Launceston and Liskeard which were proposed, but not progressed, as potential EZs in the bidding process.

"At the time, we did look at other areas and there are opportunities in many places in Cornwall that all have merit, as well as the airport bid. We will be helping the others to develop their offering, although this may need the Localism Bill to be in place, but they might be able to set up their own EZs," said Chris Pomfret, chairman of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership.

Those behind the Newquay bid are now waiting on further guidance from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to see how they go about making their EZ Zone a reality.

One factor of the bid was that many of the strands involved in the scheme are already in place and, as such, it is ready to hit the ground running.

The airport is council-owned, already has a Local Development Order granted meaning that its planning regime is much simplified and superfast broadband is on the way thanks to the Convergence and BT-funded programme. It has already secured a high-profile inward investor last year in the form of AgustaWestland who have based their helicopter training programme at the airport.

"AgustaWestland could be a catalyst. We may see growth happening quicker than it would have done without an EZ... We should be at the top of peoples' lists if they are seeking to expand," said Miles Carden, Newquay Cornwall Airport programme manager at the Cornwall Development Company.

A total of 29 bids were submitted in total, with all three of the Westcountry schemes believed to have made a 20-strong shortlist.

One concern for those behind the Plymouth bid will be whether it makes a difference to the city's ambitions to be at the forefront of marine renewables activity in the Westcountry.

Prof Beer stressed that the city's aims remain unchanged and that work was now under way to progress related offshore renewables initiatives such as a Marine Energy Park and a Technology Innovation Centre

"They are not mutually dependent on each other although the EZ was part of the bigger package of the TIC. When Vince Cable was down, he said, 'Given your global marine expertise, you should be part of the national TIC,' so we have had encouragement from him and we're going forward with a submission to be part of the TIC and the MEP we're progressing with the Department of Energy and Climate Change," he said.

Even so, the knock-back is a body blow for those involved in the bid who had gone to considerable lengths to stress the benefits such a zone could bring the city's economy.

Research by the Regional Economic Development Group at the Plymouth University's Business School had shown that an EZ would create at least 2,000 new jobs and grow the city's economy by £100 million.

The study found that, if the city failed to get an EZ, it could see it experience negative growth until 2016, causing unemployment to rise from 7.3 per cent in 2011 to more than 10 per cent by 2014, with the prospective loss of more than 3,000 jobs.

Tim Jones, chairman of the Heart of the South West LEP, said there was a case for both bids to look at the feasibility of declaring themselves to be Enterprise Zones.

He said there had been "a high degree of expectation" around the Plymouth bid, with the possibility that the multi-site nature of both rejected bids had been a factor in the Government's decision.

"The criteria that civil servants set does often show where their hearts and minds are but we discussed this with them and they were very clear that this did not preclude the bids," he added.