A recipe for inward investment

Excellent transport links and huge investment in infrastructure have put Stoke-on-Trent in the fast lane

Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire’s rise in prominence as an investment location owes a great deal to the transport infrastructure that makes the area so attractive to companies in a host of different markets and sectors.

Already benefiting from its central location at the heart of the UK, it has taken great strides forward in the last decade with its ability to embrace new roads and, once built, maximise them to their full potential.

Naturally, most of the attention has been on whether Britain’s first paid for Motorway – the M6 Toll - would become the answer to its big brother’s prayers or a disused piece of expensive tarmac. Fortunately, the former has prevailed with the time savings now enjoyed by so many helping usage levels to grow.

Of course, even more recently, the improvements to the A500 “D” road through the North Staffordshire conurbation were completed, providing a trouble free link between the M6 (junction 15 and 16) to the M1 (junction 24) at Nottingham.

Add to these roads the M6, A38 and M42, a population of over one million people and 1000+ acres of sites for development and you have a recipe for success.

The headline “recipe” for Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire continues to be one associated with the development of logistic units, ranging from 100,000 ft2 to nearly 500,000 ft2, offices in the sub 10,000 ft2 category – especially in Southern Staffordshire - and a very healthy ‘future’ portfolio.

Indeed, as far as speculative build is concerned, there is approximately 1.6 m ft2 under construction, compared with 975,000 ft2 at this time last year, reflecting the continuing confidence in the area by developers, businesses and the financial institutions

Another trend within logistics in the area is the current concentration of new development in Burton upon Trent, presumably fuelled by the nearness to the confluence of the A38/A50. By the end of 2007, there is likely to have been up to 1.3m ft2 of new development constructed in the last 18 months.

Some are already available, such as First Point (210,000 ft2), the former Dunelm building (100,000 ft2 ) at Centrum 100 and Cumulus (150,000 ft2 ) at Centre 38 - the latter having recently been acquired by Cambridge-based developers, Wrenbridge.

At the same time, Barberry 157 (157,000 ft2 ), Opus Axis (460,000 ft2 extended former Littlewoods building) at Centrum 100 and the AVRO development (300,000 ft2 ) at the former Wellington Works on Wellington Road all currently being constructed.

Looking west, Fradley Park in Lichfield has always been a magnet for distribution companies, with Hellman, Caterpillar Logistics and Amethyst already based on the scheme and Tesco soon to follow with its high-profile 710,000 sq ft distribution unit set to create close on 900 jobs. A further 460,000 sq ft warehouse has outline planning permission and, if previous experience is anything to go by, it may not be long until a pre-let is secured.

Moving up to Stoke-on-Trent, it is very pleasing to see that the winner of the RIBA promoted City Centre design competition has been announced.

Architects Glenn Howells will oversee the expenditure of some £100m on improving the public realm between now and 2010. This will add to the new housing developments, the impending 600,000 ft2 office-led mixed use business quarter development and the redevelopment of the East West precinct into a modern retail offer.

Finally, InStaffs is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year and has so far helped 300 companies invest in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, creating over 16700 jobs and safeguarding a further 3000.

More information on all the developments referred to above is available at www.instaffs.co.uk