Staffordshire

Five years of M6 Toll
The economic impact of the five-year-old M6 Toll road is clear for all to see across Staffordshire, where it has been a catalyst for investment and development across the county.

"The M6 Toll is now over five years old and there is no doubt that since opening it has provided a massive economic stimulus to the whole of Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire and, especially southern Staffordshire which is adjacent to the Birmingham and West Midlands conurbation," comments John de Kanter of InStaffs.

"In the year ending June 2009, a daily average of 39,000 vehicles per day have used the M6 Toll Road. This means that 39,000 vehicles are not using the much congested M6 through the West Midlands conurbation and therefore, helped to provide a degree of relief to traffic flows and accessibility.

Of course, along the M6 Toll corridor itself, towns such as Burntwood, Cannock, Lichfield and Tamworth have benefitted from continuing investment. One example of a very successful office development has been that at Lichfield South at Wall Island (T5 on the M6 Toll).

This was a development by Lingfield Securities and consisted of three offices of around 14,000 sq ft each. The development attracted such end users as Nextira One and Parker Hannifin. There still remain a number of key sites along the corridor offering substantial opportunities for any business that requires good accessibility.

The M6 Toll corridor has been a boon to any business in logistics and notable buildings available include the 700,000 sq ft Flair development by Gazeley at Rugeley, the 127,000 sq ft Wrenbridge building at Kingswood Lakeside, Cannock and several buildings (102,000 and 104,000 sq ft) at Fradley. Just a little further away at Burton, the 460,000 sq ft Opus Axis and the 300,000 sq ft Duke remain available.

There are also a wide range of units available in the sub-100,000 sq ft category, a size band were most activity is concentrated at present. One of the latest developments is The Dell at Fetherstone where seven units totalling 51,000 sq ft are available for industrial/warehouse usage.

Perhaps one of the leading developers in this part of Staffordshire is Pritchard Holdings which has a number of developments in the Cannock area. These include the planned Lakeside Park (mixed use development including 176 houses to be developed by Bellway) to complement the industrial/office developments at the all but completed Orbital Plaza and Park Plaza.

Other developments in the area include Gallan Park on the A5 (new home to 70,000 sq ft Renus Logistics and room for a further 270,000 sq ft of development), the Network Space development at Keys Business Park of 47,000 sq ft office/serviced office called 'Centrix' and Morsten Court, phase 2 at Kingswood which still has six office suites available up to 2,000 sq ft.

Another success story is Burntwood Business Park just east of Cannock, where London and Cambridge Properties have continued to successfully develop their site with a number of units currently available in sizes between 20,000 sq ft and 35,000 sq ft; some smaller units are in the planning stages. In the same location, a number of other developers have built out a range of smaller office units in the sub-2500 sq ft category some of which are still available.

Further east along the Toll Road, two office units totalling 15,000 sq ft remain available in the first phase at City Wharf in Lichfield with a further 20,000 sq ft to come as part of phase 2. Meanwhile, two offices of 16 remain at Parkside in Lichfield and Sibson Mill is building out another 10,000-sq ft office at Sandy Hill Park in Tamworth."

Anthony Phillips of A J Phillips comments: "At the beginning of this year it would have been very difficult to predict what on earth was going to happen in the world in which we operate as commercial agents.

It is not in the nature of agents or anyone engaged in sales to be other than optimistic. However we also have to be realistic and acknowledge that the market and subsequent levels of activity are not within our control and we have to make the best of a bad market.
The effects of vacant property rates have had a significant effect on deals or suggestions for deals since the ridiculous burden of vacant property rates were imposed and particularly in the industrial sector. What on earth is Brown and co up to? It seems that they have no idea of the damage that this is having on the market and the sooner Brown and co are out of office, the better.

Unfortunately it is not clear that the new Tory administration will be able to reverse the rates burden to pre 1st April 2008. Perhaps the best we can hope for is an increase in the relief from the £15,000 exemption limit up to £100,000.

A conversation with our local MP for Stafford revealed that the rates burden had been introduced to encourage landlords to stop holding out for higher rents! Well it has certainly done that to the point that some of our landlords would accept any rent or even no rent in order to avoid the consequences of empty rates liability. Roll on general election 2010.

On the positive side there seems to have been more activity in the public sector than usual and without that the economy in property matters would have been very slow indeed. Let's hope for better levels of activity in the knowledge that there will be a change in the administration early 2010."

Back to Midlands Features September 2009

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