New Rugeley Power Station plan could bring 1,800 homes and 4,500 jobs

Ambitious proposals are in the pipeline to build 1,800 homes on the Rugeley Power Station site and turn it into 'Europe’s Silicon Valley' creating 4,500 jobs, it can be revealed.

The Express & Star has met with a third-party developer and viewed their alternative vision for the site which they say will realise the ‘international importance’ of the 374-acre plot.

Just last week the district councils for Cannock Chase and Lichfield, which share planning authority for the land, launched a public consultation on their broad proposals for the site which earmarks a minimum of 800 homes along with a mix of commercial and industrial development.

But the developer we spoke with, who does not wish to be identified at this stage as their plans are commercially sensitive, has criticised the proposal as ‘short sighted’ claiming it will only generate zero-hour contract type jobs for people outside of the district turning Cannock, Rugeley and Lichfield into a ‘commuter belt for Birmingham’.

“What the councils are doing will raise cash quickly,” he said.

“The money will be generated from housing within two years. But the trouble with the speculative warehouses or shed sites they want to build, is that in Cannock there is only one site like that which is actually full.

“Other equivalent sites are only 50 per cent full. They are not guaranteed to bring the money in.

“They will create zero-hour, minimal pay jobs, with no training, for people outside the district. The area will become a commuter belt for Birmingham and in the long-term it will destroy the local economy.

“The councils' plan is too short-sighted and does not realise the strategic importance of the site.”

Instead, they believe the site could help Britain become a world leader.

The developers boldly claim Rugeley Power Station, which closed last year, is the only place in the country with the infrastructure to deliver the European Exascale Project – the development of the most powerful IT system on the continent to rival and surpass the one in China.

Among the other high-tech cutting edge industries they would bring would be advanced 3D manufacturing and an enhanced reality gaming centre, while their scheme could also include a themed hotel, new rail station, tram line, and the ability to feed power into the national grid.

Energy use is a key component of their vision. The developer has stated the new homes would receive free water and heating while every single house and factory unit would include built-in solar power.

The developer said: “The site not only has local significance it has international importance.

“Developed properly we could create a high-tech hub in South Staffordshire for telecoms, IT and manufacturing. People have said to me 'you are trying to create another Silicon Valley' and we are.

“We are hoping to build a better mousetrap than what the councils have proposed.

“We have already got buy-in from external organisations. You are looking at an investment into the site upwards of £100m.

“We just want to make the public aware there is another vision for this site. We could build far more homes, developed as communities, with village halls, play parks.

“They would have free heating and water. We are aiming to make the whole site as power neutral as possible. It will probably end up using 10 per cent of the power that you would expect on another site of this size.

“We could also build one-bedroom properties specifically to help get homeless people back on their feet.”

The developers have spent the last five years and around £300,000 working up their proposals.

They are not yet at the point where they are willing to publish them in full but nevertheless they are keen to urge residents not to accept the councils’ joint vision for the site.

Those plans can be viewed at cannockchasedc.gov.uk with the public consultation set to run until Monday, September 4.

The council was unavailable to comment.