London Editor

Cornwall is to get one of the Government's flagship "enterprise zones" to create hundreds of jobs in the far South West, the Western Morning News can reveal.

Ministers will announce today that Newquay will be home to the Westcountry's only zone, with business leaders hoping an aviation industry will form around Cornwall's airport.

The "aerohub zone" could spark 1,100 new jobs within the next four years by attracting firms to North Cornwall thanks to offering tax breaks and slashing red tape.

But two bids from the Devon and Somerset area were rejected, the WMN can also reveal.

Industry leaders and politicians wanted a marine renewables and manufacturing zone in Plymouth, and another to kickstart the "low-carbon" industry across sites in North Devon, Somerset and Torbay.

There will be 22 "enterprise zones" across England after ministers officially confirm the final 11 today. The concept is one of the Government's flagship policies to create jobs outside London.

Prime Minister David Cameron said: "We are determined to do everything we can to make Britain the best place in the world to start and grow a business. Enterprise zones are a major step towards delivering this – cutting business taxes, easing planning restrictions and giving business the tools they need to invest and expand.

"These new enterprise zones will be trailblazers for growth, jobs and prosperity throughout the country."

Newquay's "aerohub zone" was devised by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), a coalition of local businesses and politicians.

The site, covering 55 hectares, will focus on creating an aerospace sector at the former RAF St Mawgan. While a small industry in Cornwall compared to the thousands of jobs the sector underpins around Bristol, helicopter giant AgustaWestland opened a base there last year. It is estimated tax breaks worth £2.4 million will be available to businesses in the "aerohub zone".

The two unsuccessful bids were from the Heart of the South West LEP, which covers Devon and Somerset.

The Plymouth bid was estimated to have created a potential 7,000 new jobs over the next four years, and would have been based at sites across the city, including Devonport Dockyard.

The second wanted to harness the economic potential of having a nuclear power station near Bridgwater, Somerset, a solar power training centre in Torbay and a proposed offshore wind farm off the North Devon coast.

The proposals could have created up to 3,200 jobs by 2017 in Somerset alone, bidders claimed. But ministers could yet consider a series of "enterprise zones lite", with fewer incentives, to stop the LEPs disengaging from the process.

The aim of the zones – re-tooled versions of a Margaret Thatcher policy in the 1980s – is to attract hundreds of new start-up firms thanks also to the promise of "super-fast" broadband. In total, the 22 zones will be able to offer more than £150 million worth of tax breaks for new businesses over the next four years.

Ministers are urging areas that miss out to "remain ambitious and pursue their innovative ideas to foster local enterprise".

Critics fear that the vast majority of 500,000 jobs created in the private sector in the last year have been in London and the South East, meaning areas such as the Westcountry falling behind.

But Chancellor George Osborne said: "It is vital that we create balanced economic growth across the country.

"For too long there has been an over-reliance on the City and it is time for us to help every region to grow and realise its potential."