Medway Council’s Cabinet gave the green light Tuesday evening for what could be one of the borough’s biggest development deals in years. They’ve authorised formal procurement of a partner for Innovation Park Medway North — opening up council-owned land to £120 million of private investment over seven years.
The tender goes live around 22 May. Participation runs through to 22 June, with initial proposals due early September and final tenders by mid-December. Cabinet will award the contract in February 2027.
Right in the thick of Local Government Reorganisation.
What is Innovation Park Medway North?
Innovation Park Medway North sits on the Hoo Peninsula within an enterprise zone. It’s the council-owned northern chunk of the wider Innovation Park Medway designation — and it operates completely separately from the southern site, which has its own development pipeline.
Medway adopted a Local Development Order for the site back in December 2020. That followed two consultation rounds in 2019 and 2020 that hammered out the planning framework for commercial buildings. The masterplan got refreshed in March 2025 when Cabinet decided to bring in a development partner rather than go it alone.
Tuesday’s vote was Gateway 1 under the council’s contract rules. The formal start.
Inside the £120m number
That £120 million isn’t council cash. It’s the estimated private investment flowing into buildings, infrastructure and site delivery over the contract term.
But here’s the clever bit — or the risky bit, depending on your view. The site’s enterprise zone status means Medway keeps 100% of business rates from new occupiers. Those receipts are meant to cover the borrowing costs for enabling works already done. Delays mean fewer rates against the same debt servicing. The maths gets ugly fast.
The market response
Soft market testing in February and March returned mixed signals. Four formal responses, five informal expressions of interest. And six flat rejections.
Two said the site was too small for their portfolios. Three reckoned it didn’t fit their strategic focus. One worried about spending serious money on a competitive tender without guarantee of success — a fair point, frankly.
Of the four formal respondents, three are already working in Kent. Officers describe all four as “credible and well established national commercial developers”. Names are in the exempt appendix, naturally.
How the procurement will run
Cabinet endorsed the competitive flexible procedure under the 2023 Procurement Act. Multi-stage approach: officers can shortlist bidders before requesting full tenders, then enter structured dialogue to refine the brief.
Scoring splits 60% quality, 40% price. Design carries the biggest single weight at 30%, followed by delivery proposals (20%) and legal response to heads of terms (10%). Price covers financial proposal, commercial rationale, profit margins and funding models.
BREEAM “very good” minimum. Social value KPIs covering local employment, apprenticeships, Medway supply chain spend, carbon cuts, and skills investment in schools and colleges. All of that gets written into the development agreement and tracked throughout.
The LGR factor
Here’s where it gets interesting. Contract signing is scheduled for 26 July 2027. Local Government Reorganisation — which will merge Medway, Kent County Council and the twelve Kent districts into fewer unitary authorities — is expected around the same time.
The IPM North report doesn’t mention LGR explicitly, unlike Tuesday’s care framework or recycling contract papers. But the project is clearly built around LGR assumptions. Medway is committing to seven years of delivery that will substantially outlive the council itself, with business rates flowing to whichever successor authority ends up with the Hoo Peninsula.
The economic case — enabling works borrowing offset by retained enterprise zone receipts — doesn’t work unless Medway continues to exist. Which it won’t.
So whoever inherits this project gets a £120 million development with fixed terms, a seven-year programme and pre-set climate KPIs. Their room for manoeuvre will depend entirely on contract clauses Medway officers write in the next six weeks.
Risks the Council has flagged
Geopolitical instability tops the list — specifically further escalation involving Iran — rated as “likely / major” risk that could spike construction costs and disrupt delivery. Other concerns include slow markets, planning delays, developer financial failure, and any hold-ups affecting the business rate assumptions.
Mitigations are fairly standard. Ongoing market monitoring, contractual KPIs, reserved rights to demand Parent Company Guarantees depending on the winning bidder’s financial standing.
Portfolio holders were Cllr Simon Curry (Climate Change and Strategic Regeneration) and Cllr Harinder Mahil (Economic and Social Regeneration and Inward Investment). Lead officer Tay Arnold, Regeneration Programme Manager, supported by Assistant Director Sunny Ee.
Key Takeaways
- Cabinet authorised procurement of a development partner for council-owned Innovation Park Medway North.
- £120m estimated developer investment over a seven-year contract; tender publishes on or around 22 May 2026.
- Soft market testing returned 4 formal and 5 informal interests; 3 formal respondents already active in Kent.
- Quality 60% / Price 40% scoring; BREEAM “very good” minimum; social-value KPIs in the contract.
- Contract signing scheduled for July 2027 — within the expected window for Local Government Reorganisation.
Sources
Data sources: Medway Council Cabinet papers, 5 May 2026 (democracy.medway.gov.uk); Innovation Park Medway Local Development Order (December 2020); Procurement Act 2023; English Devolution White Paper, December 2024.