Beds and Sheds: Will Technology Unlock the Potential?

Whilst the number of development schemes involving “beds and sheds”, i.e. the co-location of residential and industrial uses in the same development, remains relatively small in the UK, there is a clear trend towards this approach, especially within London.  

The potential advantages are clear to see.  Turley recently reported that more than two-thirds of co-location schemes deliver an increase in available industrial floorspace by, on average, 40.5%.  Co-location also has the potential to provide more housing stock, particularly in urban areas, amidst a national housing shortage.

Of course, the perennial challenge for co-location is how to address residents’ concerns of noise and air pollution associated with having logistics units on their doorsteps.  Technology clearly has a vital role to play in changing residents’ perceptions.

It is interesting to see that 98% of respondents to our recent survey for Forsters’ “Outside the Box: Supporting an Industrial Evolution” report believe that technology can help accelerate the adoption of co-location.  Delivery vehicles running on clean energy and modernised site infrastructure, such as EV charging and high-bandwidth communications, are considered to be the most likely solutions.

Our report highlights that there is still some scepticism within the logistics industry as to whether electric vehicles will be more widely adopted. As Victoria Turnbull mentions, current technology still needs to advance further before the use of electric HGVs for long-distance deliveries could become widespread. 

Nevertheless, as sales of electric vans continue to rise (ZapMap has found that there were more than 45,000 electric vans in the UK by the end of July 2023), it will be interesting to see whether the increasing use of EVs for last mile deliveries in urban areas will correlate with the increased adoption of co-location schemes or if co-location will continue to be a step too far for most residents.

"The jury’s still out on electric vehicles... current EV technology doesn’t work for HGVs and the batteries aren’t sustainable. We could still see hydrogen overtaking EVs in logistics." - Victoria Turnbull, Joint Managing Director, Opus Land

https://www.forsters.co.uk/sites/default/files/Outside%20the%20box%20report%202023.pdf
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