Hull council to buy factory for £3m

Hull City Council will buy a former aerosol factory for £2.95m.

The local authority is to purchase the former McBride aerosol factory in West Carr Lane on the Sutton Fields Industrial Estate.

The factory closed in March 2019 and led to over 100 job losses.

The factory complex is next to the local authority’s Stockholm Road Depot, which is shared by the council’s street scene team and building repair and maintenance company KWL, and some of the site will be used to allow expansion of the depot.

The site also has potential to create a new business park to provide serviced plots for sale to support new business premises.

Cllr Daren Hale, Hull City Council’s portfolio holder for economic regeneration, said: ‘We see this as a strategic acquisition, at market value, of a site that is uniquely placed to provide for the expansion of our main Streetscene KWL depot and potentially accommodate other waste and cleansing operations at the site.

‘It will assist us in fitting infrastructure to be carbon-neutral by 2030.

‘The site also has potential to provide much-needed development plots for new business premises.’

This morning, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) published new guidance about what is expected of local authorities who are taking out large loans in order to investment in property.

In recent years, councils have invested in a range of property, including hotels, farms and supermarkets in order to generate additional revenue or make up a shortfall from central government.

Photo Credit – Hull City Council