HBD presses on with Goole Freeport South

Working with landowner St John’s College Cambridge, Henry Boot’s development arm has submitted outline plans for up to 5.5m sq ft of industrial space. The site is adjacent to Junction 36 of the M62, with nearby access to Goole docks. Spanning 300 acres, it forms part of the approved Goole Freeport tax site, which was signed off by the Treasury and HMRC in February this year[1].

In what has been a flagship Rishi Sunak policy, businesses situated within tax sites could benefit from a range of financial advantages, including business rate and stamp duty land tax relief and National Insurance support designed to reduce employment costs. A planning decision is expected by October on the Goole site, which is expected to accommodate buildings from 40,000 sq ft to 1m sq ft. Suzie Wood, investment property manager at St Johns College, said: “As a strategic landowner we are committed to bringing forward this significant and exciting employment site.

“Having secured Freeport designation and submitted an outline planning application, we will be looking over the coming months at a programme for delivering the corresponding infrastructure in order to respond to occupier requirements.” Vivienne Clements, executive director at HBD, said: “There are few sites across the UK with 300 acres of prime development land, freeport status, motorway and port access and a strong local skills base. It has huge potential to deliver an employment scheme that will attract significant inward investment and create hundreds of new jobs.

We look forward to working alongside St John’s College to bring the development forward.” HBD has delivered major logistics projects before, not least at Markham Vale, an ex-colliery site now boasting 2.2m sq ft of employment space. The developer’s current committed industrial and logistics pipeline comprises 6.6m sq ft.

The northern portion of the Goole freeport site is owned by East Yorkshire developer Wykeland, which is pushing forward a project with a Scandinavian paper giant for a facility that could in time exceed 3m sq ft[2]. Savills is advising the HBD/SJC venture. National head of industrial & logistics Richard Sullivan said: “The fact that the site has already been designated Freeport status is a hugely positive step when it comes to securing planning consent.

“Furthermore, given its significant size and scale, there is the potential to deliver buildings up to 1m sq ft. in a prominent location immediately off Junction 36 of the M62.

The scheme will also offer flexibility to accommodate a wide range of industrial and logistics related requirements, which, coupled with a range of Freeport benefits and incentives, makes this a very attractive and largely unique offer in the East Yorkshire region.”

References

1. ^ in February this year (www.placeyorkshire.co.uk)
2. ^ could in time exceed 3m sq ft (www.placeyorkshire.co.uk)