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Maximising opportunities in the life sciences sector
The UK’s life sciences sector is booming. The industry generates more than £80bn annually and the UK is starting to establish itself as a leader in the sector. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a catalyst for investment in the industry and development of life sciences and high tech hubs is expected to accelerate over the next 12 months as a result.
A report from Savills found that around £247m was invested in life sciences real estate in the UK between 2016 and 2020. In 2021, it expects this to increase to a staggering £550m.
Innovation and life science clusters driven by spatial frameworks like the Oxford-Cambridge Arc are expected to create further opportunities for new life sciences and high-tech industrial schemes, and the focus from the Government is set to help increase the growth nationally. In July, Government released its Life Sciences Vision report, outlining a plan to “regain our status as a Science Superpower by making our United Kingdom the leading global hub for life sciences.”
The development of high tech and innovation hubs, underpinned by co-location and collaborative working spaces for industry partners and education estates, will be core to making the UK a global leader in the sector and to drive innovation and R&D (see more from Turley on this here).
The Oxford, Cambridge and London ‘Golden Triangle’, is a perfect example of where core universities support a clustered life science industry. We can expect to see this continue, with significant planned expansion of life science and high-tech clusters at the likes of the Harwell Campus. But if the Government’s hopes of the UK becoming a world-leader are to become a reality, many more regions across the UK will need to follow in the Golden Triangle’s footsteps.
Positively, we’re already seeing the development and growth of science parks, high tech hubs and innovation campuses in major cities outside of the South-East with developers like Bruntwood SciTech leading the way – particularly across the North and Birmingham. The recent formation of We Are Pioneer Group and acquisitions including Cardiff Edge and BioCity Nottingham will continue to drive this UK-wide growth and post-COVID recovery. Further north, Newcastle University’s Campus for Ageing and Vitality and Edinburgh BioQuarter’s Health Innovation District are both searching for development partners to realise their strategic potential.
Working alongside Bruntwood SciTech, Turley secured planning permission for the Birmingham Health Innovation Campus which, once complete, will provide up to 657,000 sq ft of state-of-the-art space for the West Midlands’ life sciences sector, supporting the creation of more than 10,000 new jobs and contributing £400m of GVA to the regional economy by 2030.
The development will house high quality incubation, laboratory and office space, enabling companies located within the campus to have access to a fully connected clinical trials translation ecosystem at the region’s NHS Trusts. The campus will also house facilities such as a café, indoor and outdoor event space, meeting rooms, cycle storage and car park.
Developments like the Birmingham Health Innovation Campus will be fundamental for not only achieving the Government’s vision in becoming a life sciences leader, but to support the levelling up agenda as well as the Build Back Better strategy, which has placed major emphasis on infrastructure and driving innovation through R&D.
Unlocking potential within the industrial sector
For large-scale schemes like these, space and location are key in overcoming potential challenges to development. The pressures of 2020 on other industrial sectors could see large-scale players reviewing their real estate assets. This could lead to opportunities to locate related high-tech and R&D facilities close to associated manufacturing and logistics processes. We are also seeing this trend emerging in town centres, with opportunities to redevelop vacant, central real estate assets (such as retail or office space) into sustainably located life science facilities.
This is starting to happen in South Wales, where ambitions for hydrogen production sites co-located with hydrogen innovation centres and R&D are underway for the coming years.
Of course, key to maximising on these opportunities will be early specialist planning involvement in site finding and assessment and mediating the requirements of a variety of stakeholder through the planning process. Sustainability and achieving net zero will also be early drivers in decision making. But the industrial sector could provide a critical piece in the puzzle for meeting the Government’s ambitions in its Life Sciences Vision report, if it reassessed its struggling real estates.
Wider considerations on ‘Playing to our industrial strengths’, including the role of life sciences and innovation, can be found in our recent report.
Jadine Havill, Camilla Duckworth and Kate Donald are attending the BEN Science and Innovation Parks Conference on Wednesday 8 September. Please get in touch with a member of the team if you’d like to discuss the themes of this article and the future of the high tech and innovation sector.
7 September 2021