During the year long programme, in 2024, Stakehill will become a living lab to develop practical and innovative ways to deliver local industrial decarbonisation measures.

As Stakehill benefits from a Business Improvement District (BID), the project will also offer a blue print for future industrial estates and business parks in the area and across the UK to work together to produce decarbonisation plans.

Moving beyond solely considering energy use, the project will have an emphasis on circular economy principles. This will include resource efficiency, waste reduction and recycling measures to explore how the carbon footprint of industrial processes can be minimised. There will also be a particular focus on the use of smart machinery to create innovative solutions to decarbonise the estate.

The Local Industrial Decarbonisation Plan (LIDP) is funded by Innovate UK. Stakehill Industrial Estate is one of a number of programmes across the UK that is benefiting from Government support for industrial manufacturers to develop plans to reduce emissions and avoid carbon leakage. Supported by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) £6 million is being invested in place-based industrial decarbonisation plans for sites not located within the UK’s existing industrial clusters.

The production of the Stakehill LIDP falls in line with the bold ambitions of Rochdale Borough Council, which in 2019 declared a climate emergency, this was followed closely by Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester setting ambitions for the wider Greater Manchester region to become carbon-neutral by 2038, 12 years ahead of the national target.

Stakehill Industrial Estate is one of three locations that make up the Atom Valley Mayoral Development Zone which was recently announced as being part of Greater Manchester’s strategically important Investment Zone. Once fully developed, 20,000 jobs, 7,000 new homes and 17 million square feet of industrial floorspace will be realised across three local authorities: Bury, Rochdale and Oldham.