The UK’s largest clean growth testbed

“Clean Growth” is becoming something of a buzzword – but if you want to know what it looks like in practice, the best answer might lie in a former water treatment works five miles north of Bradford.

Esholt is shaping up to be the UK’s largest Clean Growth testbed. The 500-acre site, set in natural woodland, was the subject of rapid industrialisation in the early 20th century, with huge concrete settlement tanks embedded into the landscape. Over time, advances in water technology saw the operational footprint shrink and large tracts of the site left redundant.

Esholt’s future is as a mixed-use site promoting “positive living”. The site will eventually contain 150 new eco-friendly homes and more than one million square feet of prime workspace, earmarked for biotech, cleantech and agritech firms – and jobs – which build on the site’s heritage, and demonstrate Bradford’s ambitions to be the UK’s leading clean growth district.

Site remediation is effectively now complete, with work ongoing to find appropriate new premises for existing tenants. Construction is likely to begin in 2023. But there is already huge interest in the site from businesses based in Yorkshire and beyond. With such prime commercial space at a premium, the key will be choosing the right tenants.

The aim will be to provide high-value jobs which boost the local economy in a sustainable way, contribute to Clean Growth, and are complementary to – rather than competitive with – similar developments, for example at Leeds-Bradford airport.

The strategy at Esholt is to have a diverse final offer – and while Clean Growth might be the watchword, that doesn’t mean all tenants will have to operate in specific industries. Clean Growth can refer to the sustainable business practices that companies have as much as to the goods and services they offer.

The project isn’t just an exemplar of Clean Growth, but of public and private sector working together to achieve a common goal. Esholt was never going to be a simple project. The site itself – while something of an eyesore – was on greenfield land and in a highly sensitive location, between Jerrison Wood to the north and Esholt Hall Park to the south.

Both the council and their partners Keyland Developments and Yorkshire Water had to agree not just what the site should look like, but who it would be for, and how it would fit into the council’s wider Clean Growth strategy. And then there were more practical matters: dismantling 16 football pitches’ worth of hulking wastewater apparatus is no simple task. When they started on site, it took contractors nearly two weeks just to punch a hole in six-foot thick concrete walls. In the end, they found they were able to salvage and reuse materials on site at no extra cost, with the gravel in the filter beds, for example, repurposed for roads.

Such details matter: for Bradford, Clean Growth is as much about the details as it is the big picture.

Yorkshire Water and Keyland Developments, members of the UK Business Council for Sustainable Development, put together a world-class team to collaborate on the site. That included architects Tate Harmer, who specialise in sustainability and natural environments, as well as sustainability consultants 3 ADAPT and integrated planning consultancy Barton Willmore (now Stantec). The team’s experience included high-profile work on such sensitive sites as The Eden Project Cornwall and the National History Museum in London.

As part of the development, almost £2million is being sent to improve transport links and encourage public transport use. That includes upgrades to the A658/B6152 junction, the expansion of local bus services, and improved pedestrian and cycle links. Car clubs and car sharing initiatives will be developed for commercial tenants.

Befitting the site’s past, a key focus during masterplanning was showing how homes and businesses can reduce water consumption through innovative design – something Yorkshire Water hope will influence further development across the region. The company is also investing into turning Esholt Hall into a flagship Centre for Excellence for learning and training.

West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin has hailed Esholt as a key example of how stimulating growth, boosting the economy and working towards net-zero promises can go hand-in-hand. And while it is perhaps the most high-profile example of Bradford’s Clean Growth strategy, it is far from the only one: the council is working up similar Clean Growth proposals for the Southern Gateway site in the centre of the city, while sustainability has been a central part of Bradford’s acclaimed City of Culture bid. In Bradford, at least, Clean Growth isn’t just a buzzword: it’s already shaping the neighbourhoods where they live, the job opportunities they have, and the future they deserve.

Author: Luke Axe, Land and Planning Director at Keyland Developments, members of the UK Business Council for Sustainable Development