Telford & Wrekin Council makes £7 million in last eight years from Land Deal
Telford & Wrekin Council has made £7 million in the last eight years as part of the Telford Land Deal – which has created thousands of jobs.
The Telford Land Deal, which was agreed in 2015, has resulted in the sale of 32 commercial sites and delivered employment floor space of over 1.7 million square feet – creating 2,200 new jobs.
There have also been 24 sites for residential development sold, delivering over 1,500 new homes, of which nearly 700 have been affordable.
Money made from the scheme is supporting the council’s budget and delivering key services across the borough.
The unique 10-year deal was agreed by Telford & Wrekin Council and Homes England, a public body formerly known as Homes & Communities Agency.
The partnership, including the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), was formed in response to Homes England having significant land ownership in Telford and shrinking resources.
The Land Deal saw the borough council taking ownership of all residual non developable land from Homes England.
The council takes 85 per cent of profits from the sites before giving the Marches LEP 15 per cent. The gross sales income since the start of the Land Deal is £48.6m. The profit share to the council is £10.2m resulting in £7m profit after £1.2m was distributed to the Marches LEP and £2m was set aside for constrained/liability sites.
The council's cabinet member for homes, Lee Carter said that the Land Deal has been primarily looking at brownfield sites in the borough.
“There are a wide range of success stories including commercial development at T54, Hortonwood and Hortonwood West,” said Councillor Carter.
“The development as Leasowes Court was the first start-up business development in Telford & Wrekin for 25 years.
“It’s also seen the completion of Ni.Park phase one and the recently completed Orchard Business Park. These businesses are having a significant impact in our communities with a range of jobs.
“This has been a fantastic success story for Telford and Wrekin. It’s something that we will be committed to for a long time to come.”
In the last financial year the Land Deal has resulted in the housing development for 350 homes at The Hem, Nedge, getting under way, the sale of a plot on Hortonwood to DHL and a new building at the T54 technology park.
Councillor Paul Watling said that other local authorities should be working on a similar model.
He was supported by Councillor Richard Overton, who said that the profit made helps the council to deliver services like care packages.
“It helps us support the cuts that we’ve had to make,” he said.
“This is now starting to fill those gaps and long may it continue.”
Liberal Democrats group leader Bill Tomlinson highlighted that the Land Deal had also helped grow the borough’s provision of green network and local nature reserves
“It was where a government body was struggling to finish the job off,” he said.
“It’s great that a government has come to a local authority to help them with that innovatively. I’m also mindful of the fact, jobs are important and houses are important, but being Telford we make sure the green and the environment is important as well.
“Not all that land has gone to employment, pockets have become green spaces and nature reserves. The mixture has been good.”
The Telford Growth Fund was launched in 2015 and works alongside the Land Deal to support economic growth in the borough.
The approved capital in the growth fund was £126.9m, from a combination of borrowing, external and grant funding. Of that amount £79.4m has been allocated to schemes and £47.5m remains.
A report to the council’s cabinet this week said that the growth fund is “estimated to deliver an ongoing gross return on prudential borrowing of 6.4 per cent, with over 50 per cent linked to long term lettings of up to 15 years.”
Additional rental income and business rates of approximately £600,000 is being invested to deliver front line services in the borough.
