Cheltenham Borough Council is on the hunt for a development partner to deliver a £400m high-tech employment hub next to the UK’s intelligence headquarters, GCHQ.
The Cyber Central scheme will sit on a 500-acre site next to GCHQ and deliver some 2m sq ft of cyber, digital and creative employment space, as well as 3,000 homes, as part of the Golden Valley garden community.
It includes a Cube Innovation Centre offering GCHQ’s innovation programmes, academic, business and event space. There will also be shops, cafes, restaurants and leisure facilities.
The scheme has been supported by the department of international trade as a project of international significance.
Cheltenham Borough Council will invest £220m in delivering the scheme. This includes £37.5m acquisition of more than 100 acres of unconsented land in its largest single purchase to date, and a further £180m dedicated to housing. It will work with adjoining landowners to develop the scheme.
The homes will be of a mixed tenure, with the private rented and affordable homes managed through the council’s arm’s length management organisation.
The scheme benefits from £22m in investment in transport upgrades from Gloucestershire LEP and an HIF bid for infrastructure works at Junction 10.
Tim Atkins, managing director for place and growth at Cheltenham Borough Council said: “With the UK cyber market’s growth set to continue, this is a ground-breaking project that will cement Cheltenham as the cyber-tech capital of the UK.
“Cyber Central will spearhead the UK’s mission to be the safest place to online business as a global leader in cyber security, as well as driving forward our economic recovery.”
Avison Young has been appointed to find a partner to bring forward the commercial space with a procurement process to launch via the Official Journal for the European Union on Monday 11 May.
Interested parties will be invited to complete and return a selection questionnaire to be submitted by July 10, with a partner to be appointed in Spring 2021.
GCHQ employs more than 5,000 people in Cheltenham and the city also boosts occupiers Google, Microsoft and Apple, with a digital and tech presence that i 11 times the national average.
The cyber security industry is estimated to have hit £8.3bn at the start of this year, according to the department for digital, culture, media and sport, with a record £348m in investment in 2019 and having doubled in just two years.
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