Tariff pause and UK-US trade deal will bring ‘some respite’ to ‘volatile’ market, says Harworth Group

A statement from the firm said: “The recently announced trade deal between the UK and the US, in combination with the indication that the 90 day pause in trade tariffs will allow for further global negotiations, is expected to bring some respite to volatile markets, and should be positive for our sector as businesses have more stability.

“In our regions, while decision making cycles have lengthened, we are seeing a steady level of enquiries from occupiers across our pipeline and would expect these to pick up as geopolitical and economic tensions improve, and requirements to onshore supply chains and manufacturing manifest themselves.”

The statement comes after the Government announced earlier this month that it had struck a deal with the US to provide relief on tariffs for products including cars and steel.

Harworth Group added that it had entered 2025 on a “robust footing”, despite what it described as a volatile and “challenging” global backdrop.

Lynda Shillaw, chief executive of Harworth, added: “Despite a global backdrop that is more volatile and challenging today than two months ago when we last updated the market, we entered 2025 on a robust footing.”

As part of an announcement, the company also said its Yorkshire and Midlands regions had seen improved affordability, with falling mortgage rates and accelerated real wage growth.

The firm added, however, that this was tempered by historically low consumer confidence and the impact of the UK’s October Budget on businesses.

Harworth said it had also moved forward with its target of becoming a £1bn net development value company by the end of 2027 and growing its investment portfolio to £0.9bn by the end of 2029.

Ms Shillaw added: “2025 has seen the team make good progress across our major sites, including submitting one of the largest planning applications in the UK for 6.5m sq ft of employment space, as part of Phase 1 of our joint venture at Northern Gateway in Greater Manchester.

“We continue to bear fruit from the investment made in scaling our business and we are taking advantage of the particularly dry weather to advance enabling and infrastructure works, supporting our priority of increasing the direct development of Industrial & Logistics stock.”

Harworth Group owns, develops and manages over 14,000 acres of land on around 100 sites across the North and Midlands.

The firm announced in June of last year that it had agreed a £106.6m land sale to Microsoft, selling land at the former Skelton Grange power station, in Leeds. The company added in its most recent announcement that it had begun work to enable the second phase of the transaction in 2026.