Near £1bn investment in old Honda site taking shape, Council Leader told

And the first of several huge employment hubs will soon be coming out of the ground in the next few months as part of a £918m regeneration, which will create up to 11,000 new jobs on site and a further 4,000 indirect jobs in the supply chain over the next 10 years.

Swindon Borough Council Leader, Councillor Jim Robbins, recently met with James Watson, Panattoni’s Head of Development, Southern England & London, and senior colleagues behind the redevelopment of the former Honda site, to get an update on how Panattoni Park is progressing.

When complete, the 7.2m sq ft site, close to Junction 15 of the M4, will house around 11 net zero carbon buildings containing a mix of brand-new advanced real estate space, fit for logistics, manufacturing and data centre uses.

There will also be new parks and green spaces, additional structural landscaping, wetland habitats and investment in sustainable travel for local residents. Solar panels, rainwater harvesting and heat recovery ventilation are just some of the energy-efficient measures being introduced in the new units that are being built.

Work on the largest 915,000 sq ft unit is due to start in the coming months and Cllr Robbins was informed that interest in the site from firms who want to invest and relocate to Swindon is strong.

Panattoni’s contractors began clearing the former car manufacturing site almost a year ago and are now entering the final stages.

In that time, 98 per cent of construction waste has been recycled with 5,000 tonnes of steel re-used in the secondary or recycling steel market.

Thirty-five thousand tonnes of metal has been recycled from the site clearance and 150,000m³ of aggregate has been harvested from concrete, old building foundations and the former runway for onwards use across the site.

Hundreds of staff have been working on the site demolition and clearance, many of them local, and Cllr Robbins was given a tour of the vast development to see at first hand the sheer scale of the development.

Following the visit, Cllr Robbins, said: “It’s hard to over-estimate the positive impact that Panattoni Park will have on Swindon’s economy and local growth, regenerating one of the UK’s biggest brownfield developments.

“It was impressive to see the progress Panattoni has made to completely clear the site in less than a year to pave the way for 7.2 million square feet of best-in-class industrial, manufacturing and data centre property. I was delighted to meet James and his team to find out how the development is moving forward.

“It is an absolutely huge site and I’m really pleased that we will soon begin to see buildings emerging from the ground, built with a real focus on net zero and sustainable construction. This really ties in with our mission to build a greener Swindon and I was really encouraged that so much of the demolition material has been recycled.

“This is one of Panattoni’s biggest developments of its type globally and the regeneration of the former car plant over the next decade will turbocharge our already buoyant economy and provide thousands of extra jobs on site, not to mention the thousands more in the supply chain.

“I look forward to seeing the strong interest in the site from potential businesses translating into exciting upcoming announcements for Swindon.”

James Watson, Panattoni’s Head of Development, Southern England & London, said: “We’re grateful for the hard work and commitment Swindon Borough Council has given this enormous regeneration project.

“Our team have worked extremely hard to sustainably demolish the former Honda plant and we’ll shortly begin speculatively developing exemplar logistics and manufacturing real estate here throughout 2025. Exciting times lie ahead for Swindon and the site itself. Further announcements will be made Q2 this year.”