Initial phase of automotive park given green light
The first phase of a new £100m automotive sector-focused business park in Ebbw Vale, which could be home to 1,500 staff, has been given the go-ahead by the Welsh Government.
Economy Secretary Ken Skates has confirmed funding for a 50,000 sq ft building to kick-start the Automotive Technology Park – which in time will extend to 200,000 sq ft.
The decision to create the park on Welsh Government-owned land at Rhyd y Blew in Ebbw Vale, follows a cabinet decision in June not to back the £425m Circuit of Wales project on more than 830 acres of former common land close by.
The firm behind the proposed motor circuit, Heads of the Valleys Development Company had outlined plans to build a million sq ft technology park next to the track, in a second-phase project that would have required separate funding.
The company was seeking the Welsh Government to underwrite around £210m of the cost of what would have been a privately funded circuit. However, the Welsh Government said this would have posed too much risk to the taxpayers, with a possibility that the ONS could also have ruled that the underwritten amount needed to be accounted for in its £15bn budget.
The Welsh Government’s park is one of six strategic hubs identified by the ministerial taskforce for the South Wales Valleys’ action plan Our Valleys, Our Future, published in July.
Mr Skates said: “I am keen to progress our plans for a £100m technology park as quickly as possible in order to secure high-quality jobs and investment in Ebbw Vale and stimulate economic growth across the Heads of the Valleys. Today, I am pleased to announce that I have approved the necessary funding for the design and construction of a 50,000 sq ft industrial space in Rhyd Y Blew in Ebbw Vale to kick-start that process.
“Since I announced the Welsh Government’s plans to establish the technology park, we have had a significant number of inquiries from automotive companies looking to move to Ebbw Vale, and I am confident that the development of this new facility will help us to start to meet demand in the market.
“There is no doubt we are at a pivotal time for the automotive industry. I want the new technology park to become renowned as a centre for the development and application of next-generation technologies for intelligent transportation. “This needs to be a project that can have an impact in both the near and the long term. We need to retain our focus on the here and the now, which also means focussing on jobs on the ground and the petrol engines that will be with us for some time to come, but it needs to built in a way that can capitalise on rapid changes happening in the automotive industry. The park and our investment needs to be futureproofed to develop and take advantage of the cleaner technologies of the future.”
The new building’s budget has not been disclosed, so as not to influence the tender process which will award the contract to design and build it.
Later today Mr Skates will outline plans for the park to the board of the Ebbw Vale Enterprise Zone.
Its chairman Mark Langshaw said: “We are pleased to welcome the Economy Secretary to Ebbw Vale again to discuss plans for the £100m technology park. It is good to see that work is progressing and that the Welsh Government has committed to the construction of a 50,000 sq foot industrial building in Rhyd y Blew. We look forward to working with Welsh Government on this project to ensure that it delivers for the people of Blaenau Gwent and beyond.”