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Scottow Enterprise Park … space to grow

Scottow Enterprise Park is the latest incubation venture from Hethel Innovation. In December 2015, Hethel Innovation took over the contract to operate Scottow. When the new team arrived, occupancy was at 24% and Norfolk County Council were questioning its viability.

However, over the last 3 years occupancy has increased to 98% with 127 businesses on site employing nearly 500 people. There is been incredible demand from local North Norfolk businesses, especially within the STEM sectors. These companies have been provided with the space to grow, supporting them to dream and giving them the resources they need to be successful.

Since 2016, employment in engineering and manufacturing in North Norfolk has increased by 36% with more opportunities for local communities to find high skilled high paid work without having to relocate. 

There are ambitious plans for Scottow. Currently there are around 500k sqft of lettable space on the park but the vision is to double this, putting a further 500k sqft of space online for local businesses, who will in total employ 1000 people on site. This will make Scottow one of the biggest Enterprise Parks in the country, truly transforming this small North Norfolk location. 

Scottow Enterprise Park aims to drive economic growth and innovate on a global scale

Since opening in 2013, Scottow has supported 154 tenants to grow and innovate their businesses within the park. Today there are 130 businesses in residence representing a range of industries, from construction to film.  Over the 5 years since the park opened over 30 start ups have launched with our support, taking advantage of the courses and space offered. 

The site promotes an atmosphere of collaboration between tenants as well as local universities and academics. This drives innovation across the site and helps to create new ideas and relationships between businesses.  Encouraging local companies to establish themselves on site, in addition to using local contractors boosts the local economy.

Hethel Innovation offers a series of workshops to help companies start and grow, interspersed with a variety of masterclasses on subjects such as intellectual property and marketing. Enterprise Open Day’s, held monthly allow businesses to view the site and attend taster course sessions. Outreach programmes such as STEM Gamechangers helps to encourage students to enter STEM based careers. Partnership with the Spirit of Coltishall Association provides community outreach from a historical perspective, showcasing the development and progress of the site.

The technical zone of the park sits in an enterprise zone – designed to support businesses, they offer no business rates for up to 5 years, which alongside the stepped rent brings room for growth and expansion for businesses of all sizes.

After years of inactivity, Swift aircraft have moved onto Scottow and the runway will once again be utilised. The composite aircrafts will be manufactured in one of the Hangars on site and test flights will make use of the run way which is able to handle the Concord.

A recent development at Scottow has been Beattie Passive’s Flying Factory. This cost-effective factory set-up has been developed to deliver high quality Passivhaus homes across the UK.  This includes Beattie Passive’s latest innovation, Pop-up Relocatable Homes, designed to meet the need for affordable, high quality housing for the growing homelessness crisis.

The company have developed an award winning, innovative offsite timber frame build technology guaranteeing the performance of Passivhaus and ensures the delivery of a unique, low energy, high performance home. Super-efficient insulation and excellent airtightness are coupled with a mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) system. MVHR is a low energy ventilation system that provides fresh, filtered air whilst reusing up to 95% of heat that would have otherwise be lost.

Passivhaus design can therefore create healthy and comfortable homes that require minimal heating. These Flying Factories enable Housing Associations and Developers to deliver their own Passivhaus standard housing with off-site manufacture and rapid on-site assembly.