Developer Purfleet Centre Regeneration Ltd will help to deliver the £1bn, 2,500-home regeneration project, which includes a film studio complex.

The developer team partners include demolition firm Keltbray, housing association L&Q, which will invest £27m to kickstart the first projects, and development managers Urban Catalyst.

A masterplan, which has been created for PCRL by architect Will Alsop, includes major enhancements to the surrounding landscape, with a new school and remodelled railway station.

The centrepiece of the regeneration will be a new 600,000 sq ft media village, which will be the first purpose-built film and TV studio complex of this type in the UK for 50 years. This is will be designed by this year’s Stirling Award winners AHMM.

Thurrock council regeneration spokesman Richard Speight said: “The development agreement has now been signed by all the parties, the legal processes are over, and during 2016 we will see all the planning applications coming through and some remedial work being carried out.

“In 2017 the first phase will start to rise – and that includes the school, the health centre and the supermarket.