Why relocate?

i3, Irvine's Enterprise Area, offers an outstanding location for inward investment

Irvine’s Enterprise Area provides well-serviced sites and great connections to the rest of Scotland and beyond. 

North Ayrshire provides an excellent location for business, with a readily available, skilled work force and strong links with local universities and colleges. The Irvine Bay area also offers a high quality of life with sandy beaches, fabulous Scottish scenery, new homes and refurbished town centres.

Enterprise Area

In April 2012 132 ha of land in Irvine was designated as part of Scotland’s Life Sciences Enterprise Area. Known as i3, Irvine Innovation and Industry, the location provides outstanding facilities for innovation and inward investment on well-serviced sites with great connections to the rest of Scotland and beyond.

There are relocation incentives specifically for life sciences companies considering moving in to the area. Other incentives are available to any business, but might be of particular interest to capital intensive industries.

Irvine Enterprise Area offers a comprehensive range of plot sizes, including a very large, flat, serviced strategic user site.

Find full details of our Sites and Properties.

 

• Skilled labour force

  The Irvine area already has globally recognised life sciences manufacturing businesses, who successfully recruit the skilled people they need from local universities and colleges.

  Nearby universities for Irvine Enterprise Area include:

  • Glasgow University
  • Strathclyde University
  • Glasgow Caledonian University
  • University of the West of Scotland

  These institutions offer a wide range of internationally renowned research programmes in life sciences and provide a range of high quality science and engineering programmes from HNC through to graduate and post graduate levels.

• Business costs

  Business incentives at Irvine Enterprise Area include business rates relief (for life sciences businesses) or accelerated capital allowances (any business may qualify). Different business incentives are available on different plots of land.

  In addition the i3 business park offers

  • Assisted Area status
  • Accelerated planning arrangements
  • Access to SPRUCE (loan fund)
  • Business development support
  • Skills and training support
  • Relocation support
• Infrastructure

  The Enterprise Area is already well provided with a high standard of infrastructure and utilities. Throughout the i3 campuses there is diverse fibre optic connectivity with a choice of three suppliers.

  The investment campus currently has 36 MVA of electricity immediately available for connection and up to 100 MVA is potentially available if required. High volume water and drainage facilities, suitable for manufacturing, are already in place.

• Development opportunities

  The range of property and land currently available in Irvine Enterprise Area includes a major opportunity for a large scale development on a flat 50 ha site, reported to be the best site in Scotland to locate a data centre.

  In addition there are serviced plots with road access and utilities already in place.

  Facilities currently available include lab space, offices and clean room facilities suitable for life sciences companies, with scope to accommodate a range of business sizes.

  The high quality of infrastructure means that the site is suitable for many manufacturing and engineering businesses.

• Business environment

  Businesses that choose to relocate in the UK are often attracted by the political stability of the country. Other positive contributing factors are:

  • Tax regime
  • Regulatory framework
  • Patent and IP legislation
  • Flexible labour market
  • Locally there is political support for regeneration and inward investment from the Scottish Government and North Ayrshire Council with the benefit of a unique accelerated planning zone. The Enterprise Area benefits from all of these.