The Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership has expressed frustration over a further delay to a decision regarding the £280m Coventry and Warwickshire Gateway development.
A decision by communities and local government minister Eric Pickles was due before Christmas, however LEP officials have now been told that a decision will not be announced until the New Year.
LEP chairman Jonathan Browning said: “We are disappointed by the delay as we had hoped that it would be determined this year. We called for a swift decision when we submitted our strategic economic plan to government, because we did not want the decision to be delayed.
“The economy in Coventry and Warwickshire has moved on a great deal since the application was first made, and employment sites are in short supply, especially of the size required by potential investors.”
The prime employment site, which could see up to 10,000 new jobs created, won consent from Coventry city council and Warwick district council in June 2013. The site has long since been identified as the key development site by the LEP, which had called for a swift outcome when the decision was taken last April to call in the plans.
However, the scheme has been plagued by vocal local opposition.
Plans for the Gateway development include a new technology hub on land north of Coventry airport and a manufacturing and logistics hub to the south. The proposals are backed by Sir Peter Rigby, IT entrepreneur and the airport’s owner.
Browning added: “A recent report by Savills has highlighted the acute shortage of employment land – especially over 100,000 sq ft – and a rising demand with key transactions so far in 2014 totalling more than 3.4m sq ft across all the sites of that size across the region.
“Latest UKTI figures show that Coventry and Warwickshire attracted more inward investment per head than any other area of the country outside London, and we have to be able to have a pipeline of strategic development sites to allow that economic growth to continue.”
lisa.pilkington@estatesgazette.com
