INVESTMENT SITES & OPPORTUNITIES
Businesses considering setting up or relocating to Melton need to know that there is a wealth of invaluable support available directly from Melton Borough Council and from our many business partners. This support is easy to access through our Growth & Regeneration Team.
COMMERCIAL PREMISES
Melton Borough offers a varied and appealing mix of business premises from storage & distribution facilities, town centre retail sites and modern office space to rural industrial areas and development land designed to meet the aspirations of businesses. Commercial space in the Borough includes:
Crown Business Park
Crown Business Park is situated on the edge of the village of Old Dalby, close to Melton Mowbray and equidistant between Leicester and Nottingham.
MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS & PROJECTS
Melton railway links
We have been working with partners to look at how we can up open our borough to our surrounding areas and provide better access for Melton residents to Nottingham.
Enabling growth and improving transport links in the borough is one of our corporate priorities. If the plans are successful, this will help encourage job creation, increase visits into the area and give our businesses access to a wider catchment of potential workers and customers.
In August 2021, we submitted a Strategic Outline Business Case for improvements to rail connections between Melton Mowbray and Nottingham. We are still awaiting the outcome of this decision, which is expected Spring 2022.
If you would like to find out more details on proposed plans, stategies and business case documents regarding the improvment to the rail connections between Melton Mowbray and Nottingham you can download the brochure via the Melton Local Plan website.
Melton Mowbray Distributor Road (MMDR) Scheme
The Melton Mowbray Distributor Road (MMDR) scheme, part-funded through the Department for Transport (Local Large Majors Fund), is a major highway scheme located to the north and east of Melton Mowbray comprising a new single carriageway road. It extends from the A606 Nottingham Road to the A606 Burton Road, crossing Scalford Road, Melton Spinney Road, the A607 Thorpe Road and the B676 Saxby Road.
The £50 million scheme aims to:
- Improve access to potential housing and employment real estate both north and south of the town
- Relieve traffic congestion within Melton Mowbray town
- Improve access to Melton town centre
- Reduce the number of HGV’s travelling through Melton town centre.
A key economic benefit is to connect around 5,000 homes and at least 31 hectares of employment space, equating to an estimated 22% growth for the local economy and delivering an additional £102 million on Gross Value Added (GVA) per annum. Wider scheme benefits include improving air quality, improving safety and providing a better town centre environment. Construction is due to commence in early 2022.
Food Enterprise Centre – A Connected Network of Centres for Excellence
Food Enterprise, Food Innovation, Food Experience
Melton has an international reputation for high quality food products – notably Stilton Cheese and Melton Mowbray Pork Pies – and is a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) for these. This food heritage has resulted in Melton Mowbray being recognised as the ‘Rural Capital of Food’.
Two thirds of manufacturing employment in Melton Mowbray is within food manufacturing, and it is in this sector that Melton Mowbray displays an evident competitive advantage. Significant companies in this sector in the town include Masterfoods (pet food producer), Melton Foods (Samworth Brothers), Kettleby Foods (Samworth Brothers), and Arla Foods. Beyond the town, Long Clawson Dairy and Belvoir Fruit Farms are also significant employers in Melton Borough.
Food Enterprise Centre is a connected network of Centres for Excellence, combining Food Enterprise, Food Innovation and Food Experience. The project aims to create a unique zone of activity for food and drink production, consumption and retail, and a place where people get together to understand, share, make and provide food and drink products in an innovative, sustainable and healthy way. It is a leading UK Food & Drink (F&D) “Innovation Ecosystem” hub that showcases innovative F&D production and the area’s strengths in that sector.
The key purpose for the FEC is to be a ‘Centre for Excellence’ in rural food production by promoting enterprise, experience and innovation. This unique position and potential within the ‘Rural Capital of Food’ benefits all sectors of Melton’s economy, specifically the high street by developing a connected network of ‘Centres for Excellence’ that operates across a number of complimentary locations in the town centre, the High Street, Brooksby Melton College, the Livestock Market and further out into the Borough of Melton.
A primary objective is to support the exciting portfolio of activity and businesses which are already building in Melton and the Borough, and to support businesses going forward.
The delivery of the FEC will help to reinforce Melton’s identity as the Rural Capital of Food and establish the Borough as a destination of choice for food experience, enterprise and innovation by extending its sphere of economic and visitor influence, attracting more people to visit.
Manufacturing Zone
Melton is a Manufacturing Zone. In 2019, Melton Borough Council received funding from the Midlands Engine to participate in the Manufacturing Zone pilot for the East Midlands. The project was supported by the LLEP (Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership) and involved undertaking feasibility work to support the food manufacturing sector within Melton Mowbray and the wider Borough area.
The project included working with key partners, including the University of Nottingham Food Innovation Centre and Brooksby Melton College, to support the feasibility and development of Manufacturing Zones within the Borough.
The objective of the Manufacturing Zone is to sustain and grow the already higher-than-average percentage of jobs in this sector across the Borough and to develop key skills and opportunities for enterprise. We aim to provide an attractive portfolio of land, with bespoke streamlined pathways through planning and other regulatory processes, along with business development and business support services.
Two sites within the Borough have been identified as potential development areas in the short to medium term. The feasibility and viability studies delivered a masterplan for each site, with a set of indicative strategy plans, which included guidelines on:
- Development areas
- Access
- Heights
- Plot ratio and coverage
- Phasing
The Leicester Gateway site is allocated for employment use in the Melton Local Plan and represents a key growth site for the Manufacturing Zone. The Crossfield Drive/Saxby Road site is not allocated for employment within the Melton Local Plan, although it is within the boundary of the town.
For more information relating to the Manufacturing Zone, please contact our Manufacturing Zone Project Manager, Maria Ramshaw at mramshaw@melton.gov.uk