News | Real Estate

Monday 31st July 2006

Corporate and commercial law firm SJ Berwin LLP's real estate department has advised Gazeley UK Ltd on the successful granting of outline planning permission for the initial phase of the Nova MK scheme, from Milton Keynes Partnerships. The scheme, to be developed with JV partner Land Securities plc, will be on a 100 ha site on the east side of Milton Keynes and deliver some 3 million sq ft of logistics/manufacturing accommodation for Fen Farm Developments, (the JV).  Work is scheduled to start on site later this year.

Benefits for the local community include: 4,500 new jobs, a significant extension to Broughton Brook Linear Park, a corridor safeguarded for the Milton Keynes - Bedford canal, improvements to J13 of the M1, the dualling of the A421 and a vehicle routing plan to safeguard surrounding villages.

The development is widely regarded as the best and largest logistics opportunity between Birmingham and London, following on from Gazeley’s outstanding Magna Park project in Leicestershire.  Applications for the second and third phase have also recently been submitted along with proposals for advanced highway infrastructure.

The grant of planning permission is particularly exciting because it is the first time in the UK that a developer been granted planning permission for a commercial development under the new “roof tax” system. This system, being pioneered in Milton Keynes, is an attempt to provide an alternative to standard Section 106 agreements or indeed the proposed planning gain supplement.  By it, English Partnerships and the Milton Keynes local authority has worked out the cost of the infrastructure needs to accompany any development over the next twenty years, which will be funded by the Treasury via English Partnerships now and then recouped from the developers through the roof tariff system, according to their involvement in the scheme.  As a result, the infrastructure building will proceed or run alongside the actual development.  Previously, only applied to residential developments, this will be the first time a commercial development has undergone this type of assessment and could form a model for an alternative to the Proposed Planning Gain Supplement.

The SJ Berwin planning team was led by planning partner Simon Ricketts and associate Daniel Farrand, who advised on the agreements to gain planning permission, and the property team, dealing with the acquisition and title was led by partner Michael Scott.