New tram lines look set to give
Nottingham emerged as a clear winner from last week’s spending review, with the government choosing to commit around £500m to the construction cost of two new tram routes.
The announcement gives the green light to a project that joint promoters, Nottingham city council and
In 2009, two private-sector consortia were shortlisted to design, build and operate a two-pronged southerly extension to the original line, which has been running for six years.
The expanded tram network will certainly help the city to further boost its alternative transport credentials, but
Council leader Jon Collins says that the extended tram network is expected to create up to 10,000 long-term jobs and boost the city’s economy by £390m every year. “It will be a catalyst for further regeneration and economic growth,” he adds.
However, it is difficult to assess the likely direct impact of tram routes on commercial property. Most local agents agree that locations like
Also expected to gain are sites near junction 25 of the M1, as well as the Blueprint regional partnership’s 9-acre Medipark planned near the Queens Medical Centre, the 129,000 sq ft city centre BioCity development and buildings close to the central railway station.
At Broadmarsh, a planned stop on the existing line could be added if owner
Mark Bielby, development director of Derby-based Miller Birch, whose ng2 scheme will be served by one of the new tram lines, is sure that the network extension “will lift and improve areas all along the routes, attract inward investment and generate further revenue that will encourage recovery”.
Bielby believes rents are likely to rise as a result, but other property experts, like Matt Smith, head of agency in King Sturge’s
There is a consensus, however, that properties near interchanges will see their capital values rise.
Not all parties agree that funding the tram network is the best use of government money.
John Dowson, head of policy for Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire chambers of commerce, says: “We’re keen to see the benefits from the tram, but our priority would have been the widening of the A453, which costs businesses a lot of money each year in delays and diversions.”
Dowson also suggests that the tram plans may yet be in for a rough ride if the city council pursues its controversial workplace parking levy from 2012 that will charge occupiers who provide free or subsidised workplace parking for their employees.
As, however, the levy is a key component of the tram funding, it is unlikely that the council will back down now.
But one thing is certain – the tram announcement helped to soften the blow of potential voids and job cuts caused by the contraction of government occupiers, also announced in the spending review. With 8m sq ft of office space currently occupied by government across the
The new routes
Nottingham Express Transit’s existing 9-mile tram network runs north from the city-centre railway station to the suburb of Hucknall, with a branch heading north-east to a park-and-ride facility at
