LAND NEAR LONDON.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5133, 1 June 1927, Page 3

LAND NEAR LONDON.

TOO COSTLY FOR FACTORIES.

SITES AT £l5OO AN ACRE.

Owing to the cost of land and other difficulties, the London district is losing important business extensions, many of which are being taken to the Midlands and the North. In this connection a London estate agent said : “Although in the provinces there are a number of good factories for disposal the reyuirements are for factories near London, and the tendency is for more manufacturing firms to come to the London area. We have a dozen firms or so on our books now who want factories, or sites for factories, in or near London.

“ For. instance, t'here is a firm manufacturing a particular home product which wants a factory or a site. Other concerns with similar requirements arc a toy manufacturer, an ele.tricijl equipment organisation, an engineering firm, and a petrol and engineering coriipany.

“ They prefer to take over an existing factory—if the prices and other conditions are suitable —to getting a site and building a factory, but they arc prepared to do that under reasonable conditions.

“In some cases where the factory was built at high cost during the war the owners are not prepared to sell at t' e present-day value. One of the ,gi c obstacles we have found is the high cost of building sites near Lond< i>: Firms seeking openings within al- nt eight miles of Charing Cross an asked from £lOOO to £l5OO an aci-.

“In the Midlands you ci'n get tlie land near a big town at about £lOO an acre, and in tlie North—Yorkshire and Durham, for instance —they can get it for about £so' an acre ne.'ir a large town. In the case of a big tyre company, which wanted to extend in the London area, and eventually went to the Midlands, the land there was given to them.”