City needs to make space for small firms

AROUND 40 units for small businesses need to be created in Edinburgh every year to keep up with demand, a new council-commissioned report has said.

Of the units, which are for a range of new businesses with up to ten employees, at least 20 need to be built every year to replace old unsuitable premises.

The study was carried out by commercial property firm Ryden after Edinburgh City Council commissioned it to find out the current levels of need for small business space.

Small business space is defined as anything up to 400 square metres and among the main users are light industrial firms, storage companies, trades and other general businesses.

At present, there are 821 small business units in Edinburgh, totalling 134,841sq m of floor-space. More than a third of the units are in the north east of the city, which covers Leith and Bonnington.

But Ryden said that there is "strong and continuing demand", with recent research suggesting that the local economy will expand at 3.1 per cent per annum to 2010, ahead of the Scottish average of 2.3 per cent.

"Edinburgh is expected to require around 40 small business units per annum to accommodate anticipated market demand," the report said.

"Of these, around 20 should be new-build to replace obsolete units. The new-build requirement will increase if viable properties are also demolished for redevelopment."

The first part of the study was prompted in 2005 by fears that high value land uses, such as residential, may displace small businesses from Edinburgh.

But the 2005 study found that existing planning policy supported small businesses and that industrial estates were protected by public sector ownership, investment values and planning policy.

In the 2008 report, it is noted that the current vacancy rate of eight per cent is higher than in 2005, while there is also an upturn in proposed development, indicating that the demand of 20 new-build units a year could be met.

The recent Edinburgh City Local Plan (ECLP) sets out a number of areas where new development has to have an element of small business space.

Dave Anderson, the city council's director of city development, said: "The study has indicated that there is still a need for proactive intervention to ensure a sufficient supply of small business space within Edinburgh.

"ECLP policy Emp 4is beginning to work in securing new flexible small business space in development proposals and the policy should continue to be applied."