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The Heath Business and Technical Park in Runcorn, Cheshire is a unique example of how a successful science and technology park should operate.

Many of the businesses located at The Heath are at the very cutting-edge of scientific R&D, with firms conducting cutting edge research from nanotechnology to carbon emissions and from pioneering medical products to water and wastewater treatment. 

SOG Group, which owns and operates The Heath, offers highly specialised levels of technical support to these innovative organisations. This has enabled the location to become home to a flourishing scientific community of national and international SME and global corporate operations. From start-up and emerging businesses to established enterprises, SOG offers impressive facilities and specialist support services to meet every requirement – while providing its residents with affordable and flexible licensing arrangements to meet their space needs.

Located in the heart of the north-west between the cities of Liverpool and Manchester, The Heath Business and Technical Park offers a complete range of bespoke serviced office and laboratory space.  Facilities include a purpose built-conference centre, 120-seat lecture theatre, licensed café , business lounge, shops and gymnasium. There’s also extensive free car parking and superb road, rail and air transport links — with London less than two hours by train.

The specialist support services available to residents include:

• Bespoke laboratory design, modification, construction and technical assistance
• Precision engineering
• Health and safety services

The Heath’s flexible licences allow companies the ability to grow or shrink their space requirements in line with their business needs, which can be difficult if they are tied down to a long-term rental agreement.

As the 60-acre Heath site approached full capacity, SOG embarked on a new build-programme to allow existing fast-growing resident businesses to move out of multi-occupancy units into their own exclusive bespoke buildings, designed and built by SOG.

Looking to the future, SOG has recently unveiled an exciting vision to see The Heath transformed into ‘Heath Park’ – a sustainable and futuristic ‘Port Sunlight-style’ environment, where people can live, work and play. Port Sunlight was the early Victorian example of social and environmental community created by Lever Brothers for workers of their soap manufacturing plant in the North West.

A global competition, sponsored by SOG and organised by RIBA, the Royal Institute of British Architects, generated fascinating propositions on the vision of the way in which we will live and work in the future and covered trends we are likely to see in employment, housing, leisure, community, energy consumption, sustainable food and much more. 

SOG has appointed the competition winners EcoResponsive Environments, an emerging design and architectural practice, to carry out a detailed feasibility study into the compelling proposals for Heath Park to determine what is realistic and what is deliverable. 

The Heath’s unique science facilities are at the heart of the scheme as SOG seeks to create a sustainable location to meet the challenges of climate change and provide a carbon free environment for its resident businesses.

www.theheath.com