Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Social Housing presented a report on intensifying Barking’s Industry Project.

The Council and Be First were looking at ways to unlock the growth potential of industrial sites and to support business and job growth. The Borough still had the largest percentage of its economy in manufacturing than any London borough and had the second most industrial land.

Intensifying Barking’s Industry project, also known as the ‘Industria’ development, aimed to showcase how a 1.8-acre under-utilized site (Unit A, Creek Road, Barking, IG11 0JW) in a Strategic Industrial Location (SIL) could be transformed into a model of how industrial land could be used in much more intensive ways - critical to a borough with London's lowest employment density and a desire to modernise its workspace. The project would be at the forefront of a new typology of intensive industrial space and would seek to showcase the learning with the industry.

The Cabinet Member advised that the project complemented the Council’s emerging Local Plan, Inclusive Growth Strategy, Industrial Strategy ad River Road Employment Area SPD. Following substantial design work and appraisals, the project had a viable scheme, meeting the Council’s investment requirements and a preferred delivery route. The scheme also attracted the Greater London Authority’s (GLA) investment in the form of a proposed head lease for part of the space.

The Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Approve the Intensifying Barking’s Industry project at Unit A, Creek Road, Barking, in the total sum of £34.65m as detailed in the report, subject to the agreement of terms with GLA, planning approval and receipt of satisfactory construction tender prices;

(ii)  Delegate authority to the Chief Operating Officer, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Social Housing and the Director of Law and Governance, to negotiate terms and execute all the property and legal agreements including the agreement for lease and head lease with the GLA; and

(iii)  Delegate authority to the Chief Operating Officer, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Social Housing and the Director of Law and Governance, to negotiate terms and execute all the legal agreements, including the contract with the main contractor, and the procurement strategy and contract for the asset management services and any terms of extension, and any other documents on behalf of the Council to fully implement and execute the project.