The Mayor Boris Johnson has announced £30 million of investment is being ploughed into the London Sustainable Industries Park, including the capital's first organic waste recycling facility, supporting his aim to create over 1,200 jobs at the site. The Park in Dagenham is on land owned by the Mayor's office and aims to be the largest of its kind in the UK.
The new investment includes a £21 million anaerobic digestion waste recycling facility to be built and run by the TEG Group. It is one of the first sign-ups to what is London’s first business park for the growing number of low carbon industries. The Mayor has committed £10.3 million for a works programme which is transforming a disused brownfield site into a thriving new business quarter to attract up to 750 jobs and 500 construction jobs. The project represents another step in the Mayor's aim to using public land to create employment opportunities and economic growth.
The London Sustainable Industries Park has been designed to create a cluster of environmentally focused enterprises such as low-carbon energy from waste plants, innovative waste facilities and other CleanTech infrastructure (such as recycling, renewable energy, wind power, solar power, biomass). The site is already occupied by Closed Loop Recycling and will be joined by the TEG Group and other potential occupiers.
The Mayor Boris Johnson said: ‘This exciting new project is set to bring hundreds of much needed new jobs into Dagenham, an area that has suffered from a decline in traditional industries. I am investing more than £10million into this site owned by City Hall to create a vibrant new destination for innovative businesses. Low carbon industries represent a growth market, which will support a new generation of jobs for Londoners but also bring cleaner, energy efficient businesses that contribute to a better quality of life. So I am delighted to welcome our new tenants the TEG Group.’
The TEG Group waste plant has been part-funded by Foresight Environmental Fund, part of the Mayor’s London Green Fund, which aims to provide financing for low carbon infrastructure across London. It is also supported by the London Waste and Recycling Board. This innovative facility will divert over 49,000 tonnes of food waste from costly land fill each year creating renewable heating and power for use on the site.
Mick Fishwick, CEO of The TEG Group, said: "We are very pleased to be one of the first companies to come to the Mayor's new London Sustainable Industries Park. This is our first major plant in the South East and the first anaerobic digestion development facility to be created within the M25. This is set to be a flagship operation for TEG and will provide a facility to recycle London's organic food and green waste."
The Mayor also revealed that the GLA is in talks with another major potential occupier to build one of the largest industrial gasification plants in the UK on the park which would take municipal and industrial waste to produce energy which unlike incineration has an overall carbon-negative footprint. The plans for the plant would potentially see a 197,000 sqft building on a 8.3 acre site, with construction planned to begin in January 2013.
The first phase of infrastructure works at the London Sustainable Industries Park will provide the amenities to support businesses locating to the site. A £4.5m contract has been awarded to VolkerFitzpatrick to install roads, footpaths and cycle ways, utilities, drainage and landscaping. This is expected to complete in February 2013.
The London Sustainable Industries Park has been developed in collaboration with Barking and Dagenham council.
Notes to editors
- The London Sustainable Industries Park was formerly owned by the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation and was transferred to the Mayor's office in April 2012 along with its other development assets.
- About the Mayor's London Green Fund
The London Green Fund is a £100million fund comprising of £50 million from the London 2007-13 European Regional Development Fund programme, £32 million from the former London Development Agency and £18 million from the London Waste and Recycling Board. It has been designed to promote the development of a thriving low carbon economy in the capital in line with the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson's environmental and economic priorities. It consists of two smaller funds to support waste infrastructure development (launched in March 2011 managed by Foresight Group with a start-up investment of £35m from the London Green Fund) and public sector building energy efficiency projects (the London Energy Efficiency Fund led by Amber Infrastructure Limited launched in September 2011 with a start-up investment of £50m from the London Green Fund). Repayments back to the fund will be effectively recycled to support even more projects. The fund managers appointed to manage the waste and energy efficiency funds will also be required to leverage in additional money of at least £55million more. The London Green Fund has set up under the Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas (JESSICA) initiative that was developed by the European Commission and European Investment Bank. It was launched by the Mayor of London October in 2009 and is managed by the European Investment Bank on behalf of the London Development Agency. The waste and energy efficiency funds will be managed by independent, professional managers who will take sound commercial decisions on which projects are viable for funding.
As part of the London Green Fund, the Foresight Environmental Fund will provide investment for projects that will help utilise the massive value of London’s waste through infrastructure such as power plants to convert waste biomass to clean energy and facilities for recycling waste products such as food and plastics. For example, London produces 2.6m tons of organic waste a year, which could generate revenues of around £170 million a year. The city produces an estimated 280,000 tons of plastics, much of which has ended up in landfill. But many forms of plastic are of high commercial value which could be worth £140 million a year. This represents a solid and sustainable investment opportunity to also help the city become energy efficient and cut carbon output. It is estimated that the fund's investment into waste infrastructure could generate at least 100 low carbon jobs, save 28,000 tons of carbon and divert 245,000 tons of waste from increasingly costly landfill sites.
- About the London Sustainable Industries Park
Located in Dagenham, the London Sustainable Industries Park is a flagship project funded by the Mayor of London which aims to become the UK’s largest concentration of environmental industries and technology companies, attracting up to 750 jobs and up to 500 construction jobs (this could include temporary, permenant and supply chain jobs). It is bringing new life and opportunities to a former industrial brownfield site, providing an attractive destination for businesses delivering waste to energy projects, combined heat & power schemes, recycling & reprocessing facilities and renewable energy technologies. The Mayor is committing over £10million to complete infrastructure works for the 670,000 sq ft development including roads, pedestrian and cycleways, utilities, sustainable drainage and landscaping. The site is also expected to include a decentralised heat network. The activity on the Park will also support the Mayor's climate change, waste and energy policies helping to deliver low carbon infrastructure and 'green-collar' jobs.
- About Foresight
Foresight is an independent specialist private equity, infrastructure and environmental investor, which focuses primarily on investments in unquoted UK and European companies or projects.
Foresight has in excess of £670 million assets under management across a number of funds, including Institutional Limited Partnerships, Enterprise Investment Schemes (EIS) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs).
FEF, a £60 million fund, cornerstoned by the London Green Fund, was launched in March 2011 by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and is part of London’s drive towards becoming a world leading low carbon city. FEF seeks to finance waste management and recycling facilities to support sustainable and carbon neutral economic growth. The Fund’s investment programme has the potential to divert over 1.4 million tonnes of municipal, commercial and other waste from landfill each year, reducing annual greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 1 million tonnes CO2 and creating new jobs in London.