North Warwickshire facing chronic shortage of employment land

Parts of Warwickshire face a stark shortage of employment land which will impact on the potential to create jobs in the area in the future, business leaders have warned.

The Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce’s north branch met at the headquarters of Subcon Laser in Nuneaton and were joined by Marcus Jones MP and representatives from Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council.

David Penn, a property expert and chair of the chamber’s Coventry branch, also joined the meeting to help feedback on the draft Borough Plan.

“We have a chronic problem when it comes to employment land supply across the entire sub-region,” he said.

“There is strong evidence that we have a huge surplus of demand over supply and plenty of anecdotal evidence from companies saying they can’t find space here.

“What we are saying across Coventry and Warwickshire is that the plans for housing – in terms of numbers – are about right but when it comes to employment land we are falling woefully short.

“The problem is that the Plan runs from 2011 to 2031. So we are already six years in from when the research was first carried out and our economy is in a very different place to where it was in 2011.”

He said the chamber had written directly to the government to outline the correlation between the number of houses and the amount of employment land being allocated.

“We believe this link has to be broken. Without a more ambitious plan for Nuneaton and Bedworth when it comes to employment sites, there is a very real risk to job creation in the area in the future,” he added.

Paul Carvell, chair of the chamber’s north branch, said: “Businesses and the wider public want to see ambitious plans for this area that show a positive aspiration for employment and inward investment into the region.

“We hope that our local feedback, along with our soundings to ministers, results in a plan that offers real opportunities for new employment across our area.”

Pictured at the event are: Paul Carvell (centre) with Marcus Jones MP and Tom Mongan, of Subcon Laser (right). They are joined by members of the chamber’s north branch and representatives from Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council.