Jobs boost is the Links effect

Highways England’s A5-M1 Link, a new 2.8 mile dual carriageway to create a new junction on the M1 and improve east-west connections between the A5 and the motorway, and Central Bedfordshire Council’s Woodside Link, a 1.8 mile road to connect a number of industrial parks to the new M1 junction, are helping existing businesses grow and attracting new businesses to the Dunstable area.

Since construction started in 2015, more than 50 new deals have been completed for industrial and distribution units across Dunstable, Houghton Regis and Leighton Buzzard, creating nearly 2,500 new jobs.

Overall, the investment already generated or planned for the area so far is worth an estimated £2bn.

Cited among the benefits of setting a business up in the area, easy access to the M1 and the national road network came top, followed among others by the growing availability of a range of skilled staff thanks in part to the future HRN1 housing development, which will bring more than 5,000 new homes to the north of Houghton Regis and which the two new road schemes are making possible.

The business parks are filling up fast but new sites are being developed which will unlock an additional 52ha of employment land with the sites potentially starting to be occupied from winter 2017/18.

Bodybuilding.com is a fitness website and supplement store with sales of USD$0.5 billion and growing.

The US company’s European operations has been located within the A1-M1 corridor in Houghton Regis since spring 2015.

Caroline Underwood, Bodybuilding.com’s vice president of operations UK, said: “Central Bedfordshire stood out on the map as the ideal location, with a hub of employable people within the resident population. Business has more than doubled for Bodybuilding.com since it arrived in the UK and our current warehouse and office facility has plenty of room to create more jobs.

“Improved transport links to the M1, via the new junction 11A and the Woodside Link, are another key part of the infrastructure, offering fast access to the M1 and airport links for quick and easy transport to international markets.”

Signature Flatbreads is the UK’s leading flatbreads company, producing a wide range of bakery products for the UK-wide market, including a selection of flatbreads for leading fast food restaurants and the main UK supermarket brands.

Grown from a small family business started in 1984 in London (then called Honeytop), the company has become a global leader in flatbread production, with state-of-the-art bakeries in the UK and India.

Signature Flatbreads moved to bigger premises within the A1-M1 corridor in Dunstable in 1995 to accommodate their increasing product range and a growing customer demand.

David Laurence, Signature Flatbread’s commercial director, said: “Given that we have a 24-hour production facility supplying fresh and long-life products with daily deliveries to all UK retailers, we have a constant flow of delivery vehicles collecting goods with booking slots to meet at their end destination.

“We rely heavily on the road network to deliver our products so better, less congested links thanks to the A5-M1 and Woodside links will make it easier for us to meet our commitments to our clients.

“And if it also means that our employees arrive on time and in a better state of mind then so much the better!”

The £162.1m, award-winning A5-M1 Link project includes the building of a completely new dualled road, three new junctions including a new motorway junction, and six new bridges.

Delivering the scheme will unlock up to 40 hectares of land for businesses and provide the infrastructure for 7,000 homes to be built to the north of Houghton Regis. It will also provide better access to the M1 from the A5 and reduce congestion in Dunstable town centre, offering motorists faster and safer journeys.

Once open, the £38.3m Woodside Link project will also reduce congestion on local roads as well as provide better access to the M1 from within Dunstable and Houghton Regis.

For the latest information and to register for updates about the A5-M1 Link scheme, visit http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/road-projects/A5-M1-Link-Dunstable-Northern-Bypass.

For the latest information about Woodside Link, visit http://www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/transport/woodside-link-road/scheme.aspx