Tritax Big Box Developments (TBBD) has made a further submission to assist the Secretary of State in making a decision on a Development Consent Order (DCO) application for Hinckley National Rail Freight Interchange (HNRFI), a major strategic rail freight interchange project in Hinckley, Leicestershire. The project, when complete, is projected to generate between £329million and £406million per year in Gross Value Added (GVA) to the UK economy. The submission comes a week after Government outlined a series of major infrastructure initiatives aimed at revitalising UK plc.
Tritax Big Box Developments has referred to the project as a “once in a generation opportunity to deliver a major infrastructure project, which has rail freight, sustainability and economic growth at its core.”
HNRFI is supported by Maritime Group, the UK’s leading integrated road and rail freight logistics provider, which signed an exclusive agreement with Tritax Big Box Developments to develop, lease and operate a 40-acre Strategic Rail Freight Interchange. Once in operation, the rail freight interchange will be capable of handling 16 trains per day when fully operational. At full capacity, the SRFI will remove more than 83 million HGV miles from the UK road network. The significant volume of goods switched from road to rail could save around 70,120 tonnes of CO2 each year.
The creation of HNRFI would bring forward:
- Over £800m of private sector money invested into delivering major infrastructure, providing direct employment
- New southern slip roads for M69 J2, making this junction fully accessible for both northbound and southbound traffic
- New link road between M69 J2 and A47, alleviating traffic from Hinckley and Burbage
- Up to 850,000 sq m (9.1million sq ft) of modern, rail-served, warehousing and logistics space
- Creation of c.8,000 jobs of all skill levels
- Improvement of road junctions near the development
- Fully funded additional bus services which will serve local areas and the development
- Improved cycling routes serving the development and surrounding area
- At least 10% Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG)
- 50 acre extension to existing Burbage Common amenity space, including planting nearly 20,000 new trees
“Few developers have the funding, capability and expertise to deliver a project of this scale and complexity,” explained Andrew Dickman, Managing Director at Tritax Big Box Developments. “We are fully committed to the project in the knowledge of the major economic and social benefits it will bring to the country’s future economic prosperity, and its impact on growth in the wider UK economy.”
Dickman continued: “We’re pleased to provide further information to assist the Secretary of State in making her decision on the development, and have made a number of significant improvements, including committing additional funding for key areas highlighted in the Examining Authority’s recommendation report. This project is very much in line with the Government’s understanding of the value private investment into infrastructure in the UK economy and would boost the government’s growth agenda.”
