Green light for Babraham Research Campus Expansion

Posted by UK Property Forums on 16th February 2022 -

Babraham Research Campus has been granted planning permission to construct a new office and laboratory building and expand its Cambridgeshire Campus.

The expansion will enable the Ox-Cam Arc to further strengthen its global position in the life sciences sector; creating new, multi-tenanted sustainable office and lab space.

Bidwells partner Alison Wright said “The new development at Babraham will help the Campus to cement itself as one of the leading locations in the world for bioscience discovery and research. The provision of this new lab and office space will provide companies with outstanding scientific facilities to aid in their research, but also networking and collaboration.

Given the site’s location in the Green Belt, it was necessary to prepare a robust case to set out the range of very special circumstances in support of the development and to clearly outweigh the harm to the Green Belt. This included research by Bidwells’ Socio-Economic team in confirming an identified need for additional research and development floorspace at the Campus.

With the help of Bidwells’ Project Management and Building Surveying teams, the proposal took 8 months to deliver from design inception through to securing planning permission. We met the client’s very tight construction programme and the build process is expected to begin imminently.”

The application gained unanimous approval in December last year by South Cambridgeshire District Council’s planning committee, though was then subject to refusal by the Secretary of State, who confirmed in January that they would not call in the application.

The Campus is currently home to over 60 companies, housing 1,500 employees and 300 academic researchers, with projected space for 174 new jobs with the extension, and a projected GVA of £5.74 million.

The Biodiversity Net Gain on the extension is set to be over 20 per cent, and the scheme is targeting a BREEAM rating of ‘Excellent’, with a 40 per cent carbon dioxide reduction.

Image source- Bidwells

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