Tameside Industrial and Commercial Land Supply

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Tameside Industrial and Commercial Land Supply

Situation Report 2008/9

For the purposes of this report, employment uses are B1 (business), B2 (general industry) and B8 (storage and distribution) plus sui generis commercial uses which have similar characteristics to industry or storage.

The total supply of land available for development for employment purposes in Tameside on 31st March 2009 was 71.22 ha. This is a slight reduction on last year's supply figure (74.19 ha). These figures consist of:

Vacant sites that are allocated for employment use, or have permission for employment generating development; and
Non-vacant sites that have permission for redevelopment for employment purposes.

Sites are removed from the supply when development is completed.

The inclusion of a site in the available supply does not indicate any intentions of the owner(s) to sell the site or otherwise offer it for development. Much of the supply consists of (a) sites which are unlikely to be brought forward in the short to medium term, or (b) sites whose owners intend to develop for their own purposes. Of the total supply, 31.34 ha was classed as ‘immediately available'. This marks a significant increase on the previous years supply of 16.62 ha and can be traced to the marketing of a number of large sites. The sites in the immediately available supply were listed in the MIDAS database and were for sale on the open market.

The reduction in available land supply can be explained by the removal of sites following an assessment of the employment land availability schedule. In particular the 7.84 ha site identified at Brookside Sidings, Guide Bridge, has been removed after information from Network Rail which set out the operational use of the area into the future. However, the reduction is not as significant as might have been expected due to the large number of vacant and cleared sites in E3 areas that have been added to the schedule.

During the year up to 31st March 2009, 7.45 ha of land were completed for employment purposes, creating over 28,582 sq m gross of new employment floorspace. The most significant completions were:

New office development, Ashton Office Park (Part of plot 1000), Ashton Moss;
17 industrial units at SK14, Broadway, Hyde;
New units at Tameside Business Development Centre, Windmill Lane, Denton;
Refurbishment and new build of industrial units, Windmill Lane, Denton; and
7 industrial units, Crown Point South Industrial Park, Denton.

There was also around 10,572 sq m of employment generating floorspace under construction on 31st March 2009 on sites which totaled 2.42 ha of the overall supply.

Planning permission was granted during 2008/9 for schemes totaling over 15,846 sq m of floorspace on around 5.9 ha of land. The most significant of these include:

Office development, land at former Senior Service Site;
B1, B2, B8 trade park, Edward Street, Denton; and
Refurbishment and extension of units at Globe Sq, Dukinfield.

In addition other permissions have been granted for smaller developments and infill sites.

Although much development has been completed, the 13 ha plot 3000 on the Regional Strategic Employment Development Site at Ashton Moss remains available. This greenfield site is suitable for a variety of industrial uses, and is the main employment site in the supply.

Take-up has again increased since last year, and is now at its highest level since 2004/5. It is clear that demand for employment land in Tameside was strong up to the end of the 08/09 reporting year. In the 2008/9 year permission was granted for schemes on 6.1 ha of land, a significant drop from previous years which indicates the impact of the recession.

The supply has steadily decreased from 190 ha in 1995/6 to 71.22 ha on 31st March 2009. There is a smaller amount of employment generating development currently under construction compared to previous years and permissions granted for this are considerably down so it would appear that the true impact of the recession will not appear until the figures for 2009/10 are released.

Although some high quality sites are available supply is considered to be limited in the long term. However, it is interesting to note that the immediately available supply (30.41 ha) is at its highest level for a number of years.

The Council has completed phase one of an employment land study to assess the stock of employment land in the Borough. The final full employment land study will be produced during 2009 as part of the LDF Core Strategy evidence base.

The Employment Land Supplementary Planning Document has now been completed and was adopted by the Council in January 2009. This provides more detailed guidance on the development of employment land.

Contact Information
Send us a Message	Planning and Building Control Tameside MBC Council Offices Wellington Road Ashton under Lyne Lancs OL6 6DL View local map
0161 342 3346
0161 342 2837

Page last updated: 25 January 2010