Featured image credit: YTL Arena Bristol
Malaysian conglomerate YTL is planning on investing £4bn (€4.7bn/$4.9bn) into the UK over the next five years, with around half of this to go towards the Brabazon Bristol development, which will house a new 19,500-capacity arena.
Malaysian Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim met UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London yesterday (Wednesday) to officially launch the brownfield development project alongside Investment Minister Poppy Gustafsson.
YTL has announced that around £2bn of the total investment will be put towards the Brabazon Bristol development. As well as the much-delayed YTL Arena, the site will include 6,500 homes and three new schools.
According to YTL, the Bristol development will deliver more than 30,000 jobs, with the remaining £2bn to be invested in YTL’s UK businesses over the next five years.
Jonathan Reynolds, the UK’s Business and Trade Secretary, said: “This investment is incredible news for the UK and will create a generational transformation for North Bristol, delivering infrastructure, new schools and creating thousands of new homes and jobs in the region.”
YTL Power acquired the disused Filton Airfield and associated Brabazon Hangars site back in 2016. The 380-acre site, located just north of Bristol, is the largest brownfield development site in the South West of England.
Last November, YTL obtained planning approval to deliver 6,500 homes, three schools, three hotels, 2,000 student beds, a retirement village, a new railway station and 60 acres of commercial development focused on high tech, aerospace and university facilities.
Plans for the 19,500-capacity YTL Arena, which would be the fourth largest indoor arena in the UK after Co-op Live, AO Arena and The O2, have faced several setbacks over the years, and earlier this month it was reported that the venue is facing up to a likely opening date of 2028.
YTL Arena’s website currently states that an official opening date will only be announced once the site enabling and demolition phase of work has been completed, but the Bristol Post reported that late 2027 is the earliest realistic opening.
Preparation works commenced in March on the transformation of the Brabazon Hangars into a live entertainment complex that will be anchored by YTL Arena. Arena chief executive Andrew Billingham has said that a two-and-a-half-year build is expected once the main construction has started.
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