Panattoni claims re-development of Honda site will be worth £1.2 billion to Swindon
It also says there will be just over 1700 people employed, directly or indirectly, on the construction of the buildings for 10 years
The redevelopment of the Honda factory site in South Marston, to a park of factories and warehouses, by developer Panattoni, could bring £1.2 billion benefit to Swindon’s economy – a report commissioned by the development company itself has claimed.
A page of the report has been provided to the Local Democracy Reporting Service and it suggests the redevelopment of the site, which could see the former car plant have 10 factory or warehouse buildings of various sizes built on it, could create thousands of jobs.
The rest of the report has not been provided to the Local Democracy Reporter and senior staff at Panattoni have not, at the time of going to press, returned calls for comment and further information.
The page made available says once the whole site has been constructed, which it says will take 10 years, there will be 7074 jobs directly on the site, and increase of 5,305 over the Honda plant. The report says 5106 of those jobs will be taken by people living in Swindon Borough, and with another 3,928 created as a knock-on effect of having the site fully occupied.
That means Panattoni believe there will be a net gain in Swindon of just over 9,000 jobs.
It also says there will be just over 1700 people employed, directly or indirectly, on the construction of the buildings for 10 years.
The most eye-catching projection is that by the end of the 10 year construction period £1.2 billion will have been added into the local economy, by the redevelopment of the plant.
And that Gross Value Added will then be £544m per year going forward from the end of the construction phase.
Swindon Borough Council’s cabinet member for strategic infrastructure and planning, Gary Sumner, was pleased: “On top of the £400m investment and 2000 jobs at Symmetry Park we have worked closely with Panattoni and the forthcoming redevelopment of the former Honda site will see a massive boost in jobs, many times those lost when the site closed.
This will deliver and unprecedented £1.2bn boost to the Swindon economy. We continue to work with existing and new employers to ensure that Swindon has the investment and jobs growth, which make us an economic powerhouse on the M4 corridor.”
North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson added: “This testimony to both the strength of the Swindon economy and the pro-active approach of the Honda Taskforce and Swindon Borough Council to secure this vital new investment.
“Once the site is fully developed we will see this direct and significant boost to Swindon, creating new jobs and opportunities, never more important than in these challenging times.”
But leader of the Labour group on the council, Jim Robbins, wants to see high quality jobs being created: “While we are clearly pleased to see planned new jobs coming to Swindon, we want to ensure that as many as possible are highly skilled, highly paid engineering jobs like we lost at Honda.
“Too many jobs being created in Swindon currently are in the distribution sector and tend to be lower paid and more insecure. We want Swindon to be delivering more of the high-wage, high-skilled jobs that will drive growth in the UK, for too long growth has been too slow in this country under years of Conservative decline. We really want to see the green jobs desperately needed that will drive the journey to net-zero. If the jobs created are in the distribution sector, we must ensure that the vehicles using the site have zero emissions.”
Panattoni’s plans have not yet been approved by Swindon Borough Council’s planners.
They show there will be an intensification of use of the site which some said was under-utilised by Honda.
The plans show three zones of buildings, with 10 units built.
Panattoni is well known as a developer of warehousing and is known best as a speculative developer – building a site and then finding a user to occupy it – although it already had Amazon lined up as the occupier of the huge new fulfilment centre in Gablecross before it had even received planning permission.