£50 million boost as Shropshire business park programme approved
Shropshire Council has approved a £50 million new business park programme for the next 15 years.
The funding will allow the council to invest in new and existing business parks across the council, hoping to give a huge boost to the local economy.
At a meeting of the full council on Thursday, councillors approved the Business Park Programme, which will cater for local businesses growth and encourage start-ups and inward investment.
The work will be carried out in four phases and will support sustainable development by underpinning the role or market towns as key service and employment sectors.
The programme will kick-start with four sites already in council ownership identified for investment, where demand has been established and external funding over the next three years is available.
The phase one development will create 25 acres of serviced land and create 270 jobs, while safeguarding a further 210.
'Huge demand'
Steve Charmley, Shropshire Council’s cabinet member for assets, economic growth and regeneration, and deputy leader, said: “I am delighted that we have backed the delivery of the Business Park Programme to be rolled out between 2020/21 and 2024/25.
“There is undoubtedly a huge demand from exciting, new Shropshire businesses at the cutting edge of new technology and skills – and we want to support them in any way we can going forward.
“This is a flexible programme and will provide up to 30ha of serviced employment land to meet local business and inward investment needs over the next 15 years.
“We expect the programme will create up to 1,500 new jobs and safeguard a further 1,500 which is absolutely brilliant news for the county. This has been such a tough year for businesses everywhere, but we are leading the fightback here in Shropshire and are absolutely dedicated to supporting economic growth.”
It comes after a £4.3 million investment was announced for Bishop's Castle Business Park earlier this week.
Previous economic growth projects of this type undertaken by Shropshire Council and its predecessors and partners have included start-ups, supporting local company expansion and securing inward investment.
The council hopes the new sites will be up to 'very good' energy efficiency standards and should therefore make a positive contribution to the reduction of C02 emissions. There will also be the potential to explore options for the provision of renewable energy generation and storage.
