A leading business organization is calling on the next round of regional MPs to back its call for more employment land in the area.
Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce’s Property & Land Group produced a report in 2023 that showed a chronic need for more land to be set aside for business use in order to help grow the economy and provide the jobs needed to people living in the region.
Following the announcement of the General Election, the need for more employment land has become one of Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce’s top priorities for local candidates in the lead up to July 4, alongside skills and the cost of doing business.
David Penn, partner at regional estate agency Bromwich Hardy and past president of Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, is one of the driving forces behind the call for more employment land.
He said: “There is a chronic need in this area and we need to ensure that every single candidate knows how great the need is.
“National parties will stand by a promise to grow the economy and create good, well-paid jobs, but this can only happen if places like Coventry and Warwickshire can allocate enough land for businesses to all sizes and sectors.
“This is not something that will be the responsibility of local MPs alone – it should be National Government and Local Authorities working together to deliver what is needed – but we need our MPs to get behind it.
“When supply is limited, as it is now, it drives land prices to a point where certain types of development don’t make financial sense and we end up with big shack after big shack because there’s such a high demand. We have need large sheds, of course we do, but we also need other types of commercial property at a price that is affordable for tenants.
“So if we want the economy to grow, if we want to attract inward investment and if we want our local businesses to be able to expand, we need to secure the land and property to do that.
“At the end of the day, these are the places that will provide jobs for today and for the future and that’s why it’s so important not just for business, but for all of us.”
Corin Crane, chief executive of Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “There are many barriers to business growth and the lack of employment land is a major problem for Coventry and Warwickshire.
“That’s why we’ve made it one of the top priorities in the run-up to the election, because it’s a really important conversation to have and it’s essential to growing our economy.”
The Chamber’s report on Employment Land is here.
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