Agenda and minutes

There were no disclosable pecuniary interests.

a)  To agree the Minutes of the meeting held on 12 November, 2025

b)  Any matters arising

The Minutes of the meeting held on 12 November, 2025 were agreed and signed as a true record.

There were no matters arising.

To consider whether to exclude the press and public for the item of private business for the reasons shown in the report.

RESOLVED that the press and public be excluded under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 for the private report contained in Minute 22 below headed ‘Mercia Business centre, Westwood Way Westwood Business Park, Coventry – Lease Regear (Surrender and Re-grant) ’ on the grounds that the report involves the likely disclosure of information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as it contains information relating the identity, financial business affairs of an organisation and the amount of expenditure proposed to be incurred by the Council under a particular contract for the supply of goods or services, and in all circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Report of the Director of Property Services and Development

To consider two petitions relating to Coventry Market, bearing 723 and 549  signatures. 

The petitions are sponsored by Councillors R Bailey and J Blundell respectively  who have been invited to attend the meeting for the consideration of this item, along with the Petition Organisers.

The Cabinet Member for Jobs, Regeneration and Climate Change considered a report of the Director of Property Services which indicated that Coventry Market is a hugely important asset which has been serving Coventry’s communities since the 1950s. The Market has 150 stalls and sells a huge variety of goods and services and is a key footfall generator for the city centre. However, similar to the retail sector and “High Streets” generally, the Market has been struggling for many years in terms of vacancy levels, the trading environment and financial performance (the Market currently operates at a loss to the Council of c.£80k per year).

The Market is located on Rover Road and is adjacent to the Council’s flagship regeneration scheme for the city, City Centre South (CCS), where £450m of public and private investment is transforming the city centre and delivering over 1,500 new homes, new business and job opportunities and high quality landscaped public spaces and streets. The Council has been working for a number of years to seek to ensure that any negative impacts arising from the scheme on the Market are minimised and that the Market can benefit from the investment and new residents who will live within the surrounding area.

The report highlights two key elements from this ongoing prioritisation of the Market. Firstly, a key focus of the negotiations by Council officers with the CCS developer when the scheme was being designed was to ensure that the impact on the Market and traders was minimised as far as possible. This included securing that the Market could remain open and trading during the demolition works, construction and delivery of the scheme; that appropriate servicing arrangements were put in place so that the traders could continue to service their businesses without major disruption; and to ensure that any negative impacts from the hoardings were minimised wherever possible. 

Furthermore, as part of the preparatory work for CCS, the Council put a huge amount of energy into negotiating with the previous owners of the Market, Royal London, to take the ownership of the Market back from them to put the Council in a stronger place to be able to secure investment to deliver longer term improvements for the Market and its traders. The Council took ownership back of the Market in November 2024 (before then the Council only managed it on behalf of the owners Royal London). The arrangements during the period when Royal London owned it and the Council managed it meant that neither party was incentivised to invest in improving the Market so capital spend has been minimal for many years. This has meant that the building has deteriorated and there has been no investment planning aligned with a forward looking management strategy to make the Market relevant for 21st century retail needs.  

Whilst options for longer term improvement are worked up for consideration, there is a more immediate challenge. The delivery of the CCS scheme requires a significant part of the city centre to be hoarded  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

Report of the Director of Property Services and Development.

The Cabinet Member for Jobs, Regeneration and Climate Change considered a report of the Director of Property Services and Development that sought  approval to the surrender of the current leases on Mercia Business Centre and to the simultaneous regrant of a new long lease. This would facilitate the demolition of the existing buildings to be replaced with purpose-built student accommodation and ancillary commercial accommodation.  The student accommodation scheme was approved at Planning Committee on 31 July 2025 and is subject to completion of a Section 106 agreement.

The report indicated that Westwood Business Park is evolving into a student accommodation hub on the north side of Westwood Way, where Mercia Business Centre is located, bringing economic opportunities for the City and delivering financial returns to help support the delivery of services to Coventry residents.

Purpose-built student accommodation supports the University of Warwick as a leading place of learning and research in the UK, providing businesses an opportunity to recruit their future skilled workforce and help strengthen the economy of the city.

The proposed scheme for Mercia Business Centre involves the Council and the developer entering into an Agreement for Lease which will be conditional on the developer:-

1)  Securing an acceptable planning permission for the proposed

development

2)  Entering into a building contract and

3)  Acquiring the interests of the existing occupational leasehold interests.

The subject property is a collection of two-storey office buildings comprising 23 units with associated parking built in the late 1980/early 1990’s, located on Torwood Close on the northern side of Westwood Way. It has been occupied by a variety of businesses and has been let on mainly short term occupational tenancies, three of which are partially occupied and nine vacant units (approx. 40% of the property).

The site, which extends to approximately 2.89 acres (1.17 Ha) is subject to seven headleases granted for a term of 125 years from 22 November 1988 expiring on the 21 November 2113. A capital premium payment was received by the Council when granting the original leases hence the current rent passing is a peppercorn. The leases currently restrict the use of each demise to offices. The developer, Skybridge Property Mercia Limited (SPML) is acquiring the headleases from the long leaseholders.

SPML are proposing to construct a purpose-built student housing development of up to 1,006 beds with ground floor commercial. They have agreed to acquire the headleases from Mercia Business Village (Coventry Ltd), which have an unexpired term of 88 years. SPML are seeking a new 153-year lease (which allows the proposed development on the land outlined in red in Appendix 1). The new lease is to include of a piece of amenity land currently accommodating trees and shrubs on the corner of Westwood Way and Torwood Close (shown hatched red on the plan). The amenity land is owned by the Council and is also part of the adopted highway.

SPML intend to forward sell the completed development to an investor or investment fund. As such the Council may be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

There are no outstanding issues.

There were no outstanding issues.

There were no other items of urgent public business.

Report of the Director of Property Services and Development

(Listing officer:- A Hunt – e mail Adam.Hunt@coventry.gov.uk)

Further to Minute 19 above, the Cabinet Member for Jobs, Regeneration and Climate Change considered a private report of the Director of Property Services and Development which set out the confidential commercial and financial matters relating to the surrender of the current leases on Mercia Business Centre and to the simultaneous regrant of a new long lease.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet Member for Jobs, Regeneration and Climate Change, having considered the corresponding public report,:

1.  Approves the surrender of the existing leases across the former Mercia Business Centre site at Westwood Business Park.

2.  Approves the simultaneous grant of new 153 year lease(s) to Skybridge Property Limited or their nominated investment fund or investor, to facilitate the development of up to 1,006 bed Purpose-built student accommodation scheme with a new ground rent on the terms as detailed in the report.

3.  Delegates authority to the Director of Property Services and Development, following consultation with the Director of Finance and Resources, the Director of Law and Governance and the Cabinet Member for Jobs, Regeneration and Climate Change to negotiate and finalise the terms of the grant of the new lease, to undertake the necessary due diligence, complete all necessary legal documentation to facilitate the completion of the transaction and to take all necessary, incidental or ancillary steps for the carrying into effect any of the recommendations set out in this report.

There were no other items of urgent private business.