Memorandum submitted by Miller Developments
We are the commercial property development arm
of The Miller Group Limited, one of the UK's largest privately
owned home building, property development, and construction services
organisations.
We have enjoyed an excellent relationship with
British Waterways for over 10 years and have three current joint
ventures at Edinburgh Quay, in Edinburgh, and two at City Road
Basin in Islington, London. Others are currently under discussion.
At Edinburgh Quay, we have jointly transformed
a former, derelict and run down part of Scotland's capital into
a thriving, vibrant office, leisure, and residential quarter centred
around the Union Canal. The development has won numerous awards
throughout the UK, and has acted as a catalyst for a far broader
regeneration of an extended area and is now setting the trend
for prime office rents in the city. A key element in this whole
process has been the refurbishment and enlivening of the Union
Canal which has its terminal junction at Edinburgh Quay. Life
has been breathed back into the canal and considerable work was
carried out to refurbish the 200 year old Historic Monument. Numerous
boats now enjoy access right into the heart of the city and therefore
not only has the development been a resounding commercial success,
but the whole perception of this part of Edinburgh and its visual
amenity has been drastically changed for all to enjoy.
City Road Basin in Islington, is one of London's
last great, undeveloped waterways, and in 2001 we formed a joint
venture with British Waterways to try and unlock its potential.
Although freeholders of much of the land around the basin, including
the waterway, British Waterways had found it impossible to carry
out any development due to long leasehold interests held by a
variety of occupiers.
An opportunity arose to take the first step
in the unlocking process when the London Electricity plc lease
became available. Accordingly, the joint venture stepped in—at
very short notice—and acquired the land for in excess of
£21 million.
Working hand in hand with the Council, we jointly
promoted a major masterplan to act as a conduit for regeneration
of the basin which was approved in 2005. Since then, we and British
Waterways, have formed a further joint venture with a local residential
developer Groveworld, and have obtained detailed planning consent
for a 330,000 sq ft, 28 storey tower which, when combined with
significant hard and soft landscaping (currently under construction)
will create a dramatic gateway entrance to the head of the basin.
All three joint ventures mentioned have created
commercially successful projects valued at in excess of £200
million and considerable local community benefits in terms of
amenity.
We have thoroughly enjoyed working with the
British Waterways team—at all levels of their organisation—and
have always found them to be pragmatic, commercially astute, and
passionately committed to the maintenance and enhancement of the
waterways. We are very keen to maintain our relationship with
the organisation and are actually seeking new opportunities to
work together.
The waterways are an extremely important component
of many of our developments, and it is essential that they are
maintained for the benefit of local and broader communities. People
love water, and as well as creating fantastic visual amenity,
a well-maintained environment in and around a canal will add significantly
to the commercial success (value) of any project.
As you will hopefully have gathered from the
above, we deem our relationship with our partners at British Waterways
to be extremely important, and believe them to be a first-class,
well respected organisation who are doing a fine job in their
key role as guardians of our waterways. We consider it vital that
British Waterways is backed at the highest levels in Government,
and we greatly appreciate the continued support demonstrated by
the Committee. We hope this support will remain steadfast and
resolute enabling British Waterways to respond rapidly to opportunities
to work with the private sector throughout the UK.
I would be happy to answer any questions that
may arise regarding my comments and can be contacted at the above
address.
Andrew Sutherland
Miller Developments
March 2008
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