UK Coal secures deals to revitalise old site

The Doncaster-based group recently announced deals to bring three national housebuilders to Waverley near Rotherham and Sheffield, plus a contract for engineering giant Rolls-Royce to build a turbine factory on the site’s Advanced Manufacturing Park.

Harworth Estates, the property arm of the UK’s biggest coal miner, exchanged contracts with Rolls-Royce for it to build a 165,000 sq ft factory on a 17.4-acre site.

The group also agreed a deal for Taylor Wimpey, Barratt Homes and Harron Homes to acquire 20 acres for an initial 254 homes. These will form the first phase of a new town which will eventually include about 3,800 homes.

The 710-acre Waverley site is built on the former Orgreave surface mine and coking plant, part of the Sheffield City Region Enterprise Zone.

“It’s our single biggest project,” said Harworth Estates managing director Owen Michaelson.

“The whole Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) vision was designed to encourage manufacturers like Rolls-Royce. We’ve been keeping quiet for the past 12 months as we had a job to do. Our most important site is now up and running. We’ve actually got the right to say something.”

The engineering giant already has a research plant on the site, its Factory of the Future, which specialises in machining research.

Rolls-Royce said it has yet to decide when work will start at Waverley. The new plant will make turbine blades for jet engines.

Mr Michaelson said UK Coal is hopeful of signing a contract for a second manufacturing site with Rolls-Royce, which could see the engineer take another 11 acres.

UK Coal recently appointed a development manager for major schemes. Duncan Armstrong-Payne, a former planning officer with Rotherham Council, will lead the Waverley project.

“It’s really important for the AMP to have such a big name on the site,” said Mr Armstrong-Payne. “It’s really good news for Waverley and good news for the enterprise zone.

“It will be a 20 to 25-year project. In this difficult market, it’s great to see we are delivering something.”

In total the AMP is a 100-acre site. The rest of Waverley will include schools, restaurants, shops, facilities including health and community centres. Helical Governetz also plans to build a government office campus at Waverley. It is hoped the site will bring £1bn of investment to the region.

During the past year, UK Coal has been focusing on paying off debt, selling surplus land and reforming mining. Net debt had fallen to £68m by the end of September, from £141m at the end of 2010. Over the past year it has sold around £80m of land.

However, the group still has over 30,000 acres of land, down from about 47,000 acres when Mr Michaelson joined in 2010.

In total, it has plots for about 15,000 houses going through the planning system on about 100 development sites. “We’re as big as the biggest housebuilders in terms of our residential land bank,” said Mr Michaelson.

Earlier this year UK Coal also revealed plans to build waste-to-energy power plants on 11 sites, working with its biggest shareholder, Manchester-based conglomerate Peel. Four of the 11 potential sites are in Yorkshire.

“Our job is to promote the regeneration of former colliery sites,” said Mr Michaelson.

“Former collieries normally have three great attributes: they are near skills and communities of workforces, they normally have rail links and normally have power supplies. We create business parks, renewable energy – it’s creating economic revenues on the infrastructure we’ve inherited.”

Under previous management, the group’s property plan was dubbed Project Worth, which included an ambition of increasing the value of its land to £1bn by 2013. Project Worth was shelved by the new team.

“We do not make economic speculation about what things could be worth in lots of hypothetical circumstances,” said Mr Michaelson. “Our job is to sell land but at the right time. We’ve delivered results.”

Holding 30,000 acres of land

UK Coal’s huge land portfolio of more than 30,000 acres is a throwback to the former National Coal Board days.

In 1987, the NCB became the British Coal Corporation. UK Coal was formed when its mining operations were merged with RJB Mining. It bought the bulk of the English coalfields in 1994 when British Coal was privatised. Much of the former pit land is barren and exposed land. However, some sites, such as Waverley, are key developments.

The sites are on former collieries in the Midlands, Yorkshire and the North. UK Coal’s property arm, Harworth Estates, was formed in 2002.