THE Hereford enterprise zone has only a year’s worth of electricity left without a £1.5 million charge up.

Money for a capacity upgrade will be found through £2.5 million coming the zone’s way from Herefordshire Council.

The extent of the investment was signed off at cabinet level just before the council went into election mode last week.

Papers prepared for that decision say that without the upgrade the electrical capacity of the zone at Rotherwas will be reached within a year.

All told, £1.5 million of the £2.5 million will cover the cost of “electricity reinforcement works”.

The council has approved a capital programme allocation of £16 million to the zone between 2015/16 – 2017/18.

Specific “infrastructure interventions” over the coming year are outlined the cabinet decision papers.

The “interventions” are said to be needed make the zone ready for future investment and help sell plots.

Beyond the £1.5 million for an electricity upgrade, other sums range from £400,000 to bring plots forward for development to £150,000 for ultrafast broadband ducting.

Without an electrical upgrade, the zone fears it won’t be able to “fulfil”  investors including the as yet unidentified multinational manufacturer interested in the North Magazine site.

UPL, the zone’s utility advisers, have been in talks with Western Power Distribution (WPD) to identify the appropriate scale of new capacity required, the infrastructure needed, and the route to follow to make the connections into the wider electricity network.

The cost of £1.5 million is said to represent work identified by quotes from providers including WPD - which has already established a base on the zone - as UPL’s “preferred deliverer”.

Under current electricity industry regulations, the relevant distribution network operator (DNO) - in the zone’s case WPD -  zone - can secure retrospective contributions from other developers in the Rotherwas area who might want to utilise the additional capacity.

WPD would then pass that back to the council.

The zone is acknowledged in the cabinet papers as having made a “good start” with “considerable” sales activity and more sales in the offing.

The Council bid for, and won, enterprise zone status for around 170 acres at Rotherwas in 2011.

Zone status brings incentives to businesses moving onto the Zone, and provides a major opportunity for the council to accelerate economic activity with the sale of land and the development and occupation of vacant land.

Business rates generated on the zone are retained by the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) for “economic benefit” and not returned to the Treasury.

These rates can be re-invested in economic growth in the LEP area.

As reported by the Hereford Times, in November last year,  the LEP Board agreed to sign up to a funding programme aimed at achieving “maximum economic value” for the LEP.

This was endorsed by the LEP joint executive committee in December and by Herefordshire Council’s overview and scrutiny committee – after a call in a month later.

As a brownfield site, there are significant investments are needed to prepare plots for buy and build.

Costs to be covered include surveys and technical reports, decontamination, demolition, road access, and the identification and provision of gas, water, drainage, electricity, and broadband.

There are also some zone-wide investments that need to occur to keep the estate attractive to investors – some of them local companies looking to expand.

Known and anticipated sales already add up to 27 acres or 40% of the zone's development land.