The availability of employment land in Solihull

Written by Lewis Payne, Development Director at IM Properties 

Solihull has always been a great place to live and work, and an excellent location for doing business.

It has the strategic advantage of being located at the centre of the country with excellent connections to motorways, railways, and air travel, whilst at the same time enjoying the feel of a market town in the country, which ensures its residents enjoy a high quality of life.

But in recent years, Solihull has become a victim of its own success. A high level of demand for new homes and business space is being strangled by a lack of supply. 

This problem is largely down to the West Midlands Green Belt, which tightly wraps the Borough, but it has been exacerbated by a policy void, with a lack of regional guidance and Solihull failing to put an adequate Local Plan in place to allocate new employment sites.

IM Properties has been actively involved with new employment development in the Borough for the past 10 years.  Our involvement with sites such as Blythe Valley Park, Fore Business Park, Solihull Business Park and Mell Square has attracted companies, either to locate or grow in Solihull. 

Companies such as Gymshark, Lounge, John Lewis, Collins Aerospace, ZF, Hofer Powertrain, Solotech, Tesla, GKN and even our own parent company IM Group.

The development of these projects has greatly diminished the supply of employment land in Solihull. 

Similar development has taken place across other employment locations in the Borough, including at Birmingham Business Park, with traditional employment locations such as The Green in Shirley redeveloped for residential use, such is the pressure for new homes in the town.

The net effect is that Solihull has a lack of employment land, which will stifle growth and restrict the choice for new companies looking to move to the area. 

Emerging allocations for employment include Arden Cross, adjacent to the new HS2 Interchange and Damson Wood.  Both are in the north of the Borough, with no land allocated in the south.

Arden Cross will be a fantastic employment opportunity in time, but inevitably the location will lack definition and accessibility until HS2 have largely completed their works.  It has the capacity to be a nationally significant location but does little to satisfy immediate demand for space.

In the last 20 years, Solihull has increasingly become a home to technology businesses operating across a range of industries from engineering (including automotive) to retailing, from aerospace to real estate. 

These businesses have great potential to generate diverse employment opportunities adding to the skills base and general prosperity of Solihull.  We desperately need more opportunities for these businesses to grow. 

There is limited scope for refurbishment of existing buildings and ‘brownfield’  development, and so there is a responsibility for the Council to identify new opportunities for sustainable development that will allow Solihull to continue to prosper.