Industrial space owner, manager and developer SEGRO has confirmed it is to invest £2bn over the next 10 years to deliver net-zero warehousing facilities in the UK’s West Midlands.
SEGRO aims to deliver 13.5m sq. ft of sustainable warehouse space across the region by the end of 2033, focused on tech-enabled logistics facilities as well as purpose-built space for research and development and light manufacturing.
SEGRO says the programme will help to create up to 14,000 jobs.
It comes on the back of the WMCA securing the Deeper Devolution Deal with central government in March.
The investment will be focused on a mix of warehousing types across the region.
This includes the development of SEGRO Park Coventry, a 450-acre site with planning permission for the construction of 3.7m sq. ft of industrial buildings and warehouses.
SEGRO says it will actively pursue whole-life, net-zero-carbon development as its default approach, and will limit operational and embodied emissions “so far as is feasible” on each project.
It also plans to develop approximately 2,700 affordable, “easy-to-use, and easy-to-access” electric-vehicle charging points at its developments across the region.
The 10-year programme includes plans for SEGRO to run dedicated skills and training programmes to support 5,000 local young people into employment and provide a further 1,000 apprenticeship opportunities in construction.
The company also anticipates creating a dedicated industrial and logistics training and job brokerage programme to help 1,500 disadvantaged residents in the region to develop the skills to secure employment with SEGRO customers.
David Sleath, chief executive officer at SEGRO, said: “There is a long-term shortage of modern, sustainable industrial employment space in the West Midlands, which is vital to enable the efficient movement of goods across the country, and to support high-tech research and development and manufacturing.
“By working closely with the West Midlands Combined Authority, we can identify and unlock brownfield sites for development and deliver critical infrastructure that serves the whole of the UK, creating a diverse mix of local employment and supporting the creation of a more resilient economy across the country.”
Logistics and distribution is one of the region’s key clusters, reflecting the West Midlands’ location within the so-called ‘golden triangle’ – a concentration of haulage companies alongside the M5 and M6 in Birmingham and Sandwell and between Leicester and Nottingham alongside the M1.
Andy Street, mayor of West Midlands, said: “SEGRO’s investment programme will help regenerate long-neglected areas right across our region – building just the sort of modern premises that companies need to grow – creating high quality jobs for local people in the process.
“These next generation developments will also support our region’s #WM2041 net-zero commitment.
“I look forward to SEGRO’s investment programme resulting in projects on the ground that change the lives of local people in the months and years ahead.”
To coincide with becoming a strategic partner of the WMCA, SEGRO has announced it is relocating its National Logistics business unit to Coventry city centre.
Image: Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock
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