News that SGS College has sold a few acres of its Berkeley site on the edge of the Severn to the Chiltern Vital Group would normally expect to feature only as a brief mention in the trade press. However, this land sale is likely to be a gateway deal for a mega industrial and economic boost for the West Country and as such deserves a far wider airing.
Our region has seen a long list of potential industrial opportunities that have ultimately failed to come to fruition. However, this time, with this land sale, we are increasingly confident of an industrial resurgence around nuclear power that began at Hinkley and looks set fair to develop at Severn Edge and is vital for the economic prospects of the region and UK plc.
We want to see regional industrial developments that drive economic growth, based on creating good, well paid, jobs, that leverage private sector investment, involve local UK businesses and provide potential to export overseas.
The proposed roll out of a fleet of Nuclear Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) from Oldbury and Berkeley over the next decade, that this land sale triggers, ticks all these boxes.
A fleet of SMRs, would be a major piece in the low carbon energy jigsaw that is the South West. Hinkley Point C commissioning, the potential for tidal power, offshore wind and hydrogen are other pieces that would complete a jigsaw picture. This would see the South West as a net exporter of such power and one of the UK’s heartlands for the delivery of secure, low carbon energy production.
Business West, with our roles in long-term Skills planning though the LSIP process, our Innovate UK work, our knowledge of nuclear new build through our work on Hinkley Point C and with Bristol University’s South West Nuclear Hub, is standing by, ready and willing, to make sure this small land sale turns into the economic behemoth we hope for.
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