Work on Jaguar Land Rover (JLR)’s new engine manufacturing site in the UK town of Wolverhampton could start as early as January next year.
Councillors on the South Staffordshire authority gave the go-ahead this week for the GBP350m (US$548m) plant that could create 750 direct jobs – and potentially fuel many more down the supply chain.
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Plans were submitted to the council this October after JLR’s initial public announcement they hoped to move to the i54 site in the UK.
Jaguar Land Rover will now join international aviation design and manufacturing company, Moog, which has already started construction of a unit at the site while a second, Eurofins Scientific, has announced it will locate there too.
It is thought that work to prepare the site could start as early as January.
“A huge effort has gone into getting this application through,” said South Staffordshire council regulatory committee chairman Brian Cox.
“It is a very important project and one which will benefit the entire region for years to come. We just had to make sure we got it right.”
The bid to attract JLR to the site was jointly made by South Staffordshire Council, Staffordshire County Council and Wolverhampton City Council.
Staffordshire County Council and Wolverhampton City Council will now embark on a new project to construct a new slip road off the M54 motorway at Junction 2 which will serve the i54 site.
Both councils are investing around GBP20m into the scheme which they have said is essential to the site and which was a big selling point in their bid to attract global investors such as JLR to i54.
