West Midlands Gigafactory Gets Green Light

Wardell Armstrong are pleased to announce that proposals for the UK’s largest Gigafactory have been given the green light, with Coventry City Council and Warwick District Council planning committees supporting the outline planning application.

A Gigafactory is a facility to manufacture batteries for the automotive sector, at scale. Such a facility is critical to the future of the electric automotive sector both in the West Midlands and the UK, given the rapid shift towards electric vehicles. The proposals are being progressed by joint venture partners, Coventry City Council and Coventry Airport Ltd.

Wardell Armstrong co-ordinated the Environmental Impact Assessment for the proposals, as well as undertaking the assessments of Noise and Vibration, Air Quality, Climate Change, Risks of Accidents and Disasters, and Human Health.

Warwick District Council and Coventry City Council have resolved to approve outline plans for the Gigafactory which will result in £2.5bn investment, creating up to 6,000 new highly skilled jobs directly alongside thousands more in the wider supply chain in Coventry, Warwickshire and the surrounding region. The proposals also confirm that the Gigafactory will be powered by 100% green energy, using a combination of sources including solar and wind power, as well as grid supplied renewables, and will be able to recycle used batteries as well as build new ones in an industry-leading approach known as ‘cradle to cradle’.

With many major automotive manufacturers based in the region, the West Midlands is the automotive skills capital of the UK and has unrivalled access to both current and future talent, as well as the existing skills needed to support the West Midlands Gigafactory.

As the world rapidly moves towards an increasingly electrified future, Gigafactories have been identified as critical to the UK’s automotive and domestic energy sectors, future economic growth and achieving Net Zero targets making the West Midlands Gigafactory an imperative for the UK’s electrified future.