Building blueprint to attract firms into the Zone

LEEDS City Council is pressing ahead with plans for 300,000 sq ft of industrial development within the Aire Valley Leeds Enterprise Zone in a bid to help attract major manufacturing firms to the region and create more than 630 jobs.
The Aire Valley Leeds Enterprise ZoneThe Aire Valley Leeds Enterprise Zone
The Aire Valley Leeds Enterprise Zone

Senior councillors are being urged to approve a series of investment packages with developers to trigger major development on up to three sites within the zone at a meeting of the council’s Executive Board next week.

A report to the board ahead of the meeting said: “A renewed focus has been established in respect to boosting manufacturing employment which will deliver against the principle of securing significant new investment into the zone.”

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It added: “It has been identified that whilst progress has been made to date, this has been on the smaller, council-owned sites which are already platformed, serviced and have an established road infrastructure, and require no significant ground remediation.

“It is now important that, to kick-start the market and enable delivery of the next wave of development, so building momentum in the zone to achieve significant job numbers, intervention is required by the public sector.”

It is understood the local authority is currently carrying out due diligence and making sure plans pass state aid concerns.

The council plans to share some of the risk in a bid to get the schemes off the ground.

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The funding packages, together with an £8.75m government grant, would pay for remediation and infrastructure work and leverage in some £30m of private sector finance.

The council is talking to Evans Property Group, Muse Developments, Keyland Developments and Wilton Developments, to start building warehouses and factories on three sites within the zone: Connex 45, Temple Green and Logic Leeds, to be ready for occupation during 2015/16.

Plans for a park and ride site in the Aire Valley were approved earlier this month.

Leeds has a diverse manufacturing base and is home to some ambitious companies, but has a shortage of new space suitable for advanced production.

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It is host to companies in the medical technology, food manufacturing and packaging, pipes and values and general engineering sectors.

Businesses entering the zone benefit from reduced rates and simplified planning.

A spokeswoman from Evans said: “We are working closely with Leeds City Council to bring forward development in the Aire Valley Leeds Enterprise Zone. We are in an ongoing discussion with the council.”

There is a severe shortage of available large industrial buildings in the M1/M62 corridor fuelled by developers shying away from speculative builds following the financial crisis.

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The report said: “This lack of high quality available space means that Leeds and the Leeds City Region are missing out on investments.

“Therefore, there is a need and a sound business case for the public sector to intervene through the underwriting of some risk to bring forward speculative building space in the enterprise zone.”

Covering 142 hectares of prime development land, the Aire Valley Leeds Enterprise Zone could eventually generate up to 9,500 new jobs by 2025, it is hoped.

The Aire Valley Leeds enterprise zone was launched with government support in April 2012 to attract investment and drive economic growth across the Leeds City Region.

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