Banks in talks to invest millions to transform Gloucestershire
Talks are underway with major investment banks about pumping millions of pounds into Gloucestershire projects including The Fleece, Golden Valley, Brimscombe Port and the RAU’s innovation village.
Dear reader,
After a few days’ leave we’re back with news about talks taking place behind closed doors about serious investment into a number of key transformational projects in Gloucestershire.
These are conversations taking place between major investment banks and the teams leading the projects. It’s a sign of the times that bereft of a mainstream media into which this news can be shared, such news is instead drip-fed by other means.
Which is why we’re grateful to the Gloucestershire BIN – a group set up to support and inform members of the county’s burgeoning B Corp community – for letting us into one of its regular meetings to eavesdrop.
Phil Clement, of the county council’s inward investment team, told them he was more than happy to share future updates into their forum too as more details are firmed-up.
We also flag the forthcoming Clean Energy and Green Skills Conference 2026, due to take place in early July. As we hurtle towards the Net Zero deadline are we making progress at a fast enough rate?
A stable of experts speakers will debate just that at the event.
I hope you enjoy the edition.
Have a great week.
Best regards,
Editor | 07956 926061 | LinkedIn: Andrew Merrell | andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk
The Clean Energy and Green Skills Conference 2026
With the transition to a Net Zero economy now an urgent industrial challenge, Gloucestershire County Council is bringing together key partners to tackle the critical shift in skills and workforce development.
Taking place on Wednesday 8 July, the Clean Energy and Green Skills Conference 2026 conference will unite educators, employers, policymakers and sustainability leaders to align the supply and demand of green skills, strengthen energy resilience, and accelerate progress towards Net Zero.
It will feature keynote speakers from Skills England, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, and leading voices from Gloucestershire’s education and training sector, offering exclusive insight into the UK’s Clean Energy Superpower mission and the county’s role in delivering it.
The event will also mark the launch of the Gloucestershire Green Skills Strategy (2026–2030), setting out a bold vision to position the county as a national leader in green workforce development, including plans for a Federated Green Skills Faculty and a Retrofit Centre of Excellence. More information here: Clean Energy and Green Skills Conference 2026.
Briefing notes…
🚗🚙🚚🚗🛻🚙🚚🛻Anxiety about the impact of the planned road closures for the A40 near Gloucester remains high, with motorists facing a 40-mile diversion on the major county artery. National Highways will be carrying out repairs to Over Bridge, which carries the dual carriageway across the river and links Gloucester, Cheltenham and Ross-on-Wye, over the next eight months. Those closures begin tonight (June 8) and will continue in various guises until early 2027. More information is available on the National Highways website. More here.
🎉New Cheltenham business launches: A highly experienced Gloucestershire building surveyor has launched his own independent consultancy with a mission to provide commercial property owners, investors and businesses with a responsive, personal service tailored to their needs. Ashleigh Stephens has set up Ashstep Surveys, a Cheltenham-based commercial property surveying consultancy offering a comprehensive range of professional services from commercial building and pre-acquisition surveys to project management, contract administration and drone roof surveys. More here.
👯♀️ Concerns over strip clubs in Cheltenham have led to a strengthening of policies for such businesses operating in the Gloucestershire spa town. Cheltenham Borough Council has agreed the revisions to its sexual entertainment venue (SEV) policy which was set in 2020. It includes a designated permitted area where there is no limit on the number of licensed SEVs. More here.
☕🥐 A canal-side café has moved a step closer for a town in the Five Valleys in Gloucestershire with conversations taking place to transfer land to the project lead. Stroud District Council chiefs have agreed to enter into talks to lease the site of a former pub for less than market value. Plans for the site have also been submitted. More here.
🏊🏽♀️💷🏋🏿One of Gloucestershire’s best-used leisure centres, a venue for its biggest swimming competitions and even events like BBC2’s Robot Wars, is about to benefit from a share of an £8 million investment. The comprehensive upgrade for tGL1 Leisure Centre on Bruton Way site will include a brand-new gym, an enhanced soft play area, new water play features, improved reception hub, refurbished changing rooms and state-of-the-art equipment. More here.
Diary dates…
Tuesday:
Love Gloucestershire Networking - an all-inclusive group of like-minded and driven professionals building dreams, as a collective. 7.30pm to 9.30pm, at the Daily Grind Café, Gloucester. More here.
Wednesday:
What purpose-led businesses need to know about B Corp and the new standards. Randall & Payne host this B Corp-focused business event from 1pm to 3pm. More here.
Thursday:
Creative Wellbeing Circle for Female Entrepreneur. Networking walk, talk, create, connect, share, collaborate. From 10am at The Growth Hub, Tewkesbury. More here.
BNI Compass (Gloucester). This is the popular networking group’s Gloucester branch in action. From 10am at Patch co-working space. More here.
Friday:
Women Talk Business. An in-person business networking event designed for women at the iconic The Ivy. More here.
Worth knowing about too…
Driving Gloucestershire Investment. This Business Insights Gloucestershire event will bring together business leaders, policymakers, investors, community organisations, and Members of Parliament to explore how Gloucestershire can drive sustainable economic growth and attract greater investment. At business co-working space Patch, The Forum, Gloucester. 8am to 4pm on 17 July. More here.
The Raikes Journal is a community interest company. Everything you read is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People, our sponsors, our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.
Readers who upgrade to become a paid subscriber become part of this CIC too (from £2.30 a week). It helps make us sustainable, allows you to see past the paywalls, comment on our stories, and know you’re making possible the county’s only editorially-led digital magazine dedicated to delivering quality journalism for Gloucestershire about its businesses, charities, education and training sectors.
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Banks in talks to invest millions to transform Gloucestershire
Talks are underway with major investment banks about pumping millions of pounds into Gloucestershire projects including The Fleece, Golden Valley, Brimscombe Port and the RAU’s innovation village.
Talks are underway to invest millions of pounds in Gloucestershire to make several transformative projects possible, according to one of the team whose job it is to leverage such investment from around the world.
If all goes to plan projects that will benefit will include the long-awaited transformation of the former Fleece hotel in Gloucester, the RAU’s new innovation village, the re-birth of Brimscombe Port’s and the Golden Valley business park and housing development.
The county council has not released anything publicly; the announcement was made in delegates in a private webinar staged by Gloucestershire BIN – a group set up to support and inform members of the county’s B Corp community – by Phil Clement, of the local authority’s Invest in Gloucestershire team.
It’s no secret that Clement had recently returned from the UK Leif show in Leeds where he and others had courted the biggest investors and developers in the UK.
We wrote about it in a previous edition here: Speed dating at the UK’s biggest investment fair: Did Gloucestershire get lucky?
What was less clear at the time was what they had come back with – until now.
“UK Leif is the UK’s biggest commercial property and real estate show. We put forward a strong investment prospectus of eight projects varying in size from £5 million to £150 million and development partners to get the schemes built,” Clement told the Gloucestershire BIN webinar.
“I’m now busy working with a number of local authorities and a number of people from those teams.
“It was the first time we had a booth at the show from Gloucestershire. Previously we were under the Western Gateway (the now defunct West and South Wales economic partnership). We had very good football.”
He credited the brochure about Gloucestershire and its investment opportunities, put together by Mighty, a Cheltenham-based marketing and branding agency, with making the job of selling the county so much easier.
And then came the exciting bit.
“We’re now doing the follow-up talks. I have been able to introduce a number of the schemes to major investment banks – international investment banks who are looking to fund anything from £5m up to over £150m to get these schemes moving forward.
“It would not be appropriate to mentioned the exact institutions I’m working with, but as the discussions move forward I am sure we can probably publicly announce some of the investment partners and money we have managed to get in and the development partners who are proactively working with us.”
When asked by us which projects were receiving the interest, Clement said: “All of the projects received interest. Some more than others.
The Golden Valley received “a significant level of interest” from international banking perspective, said Clement. The project is seeking anything from that £50m to £120m to build a tech-focused business park and housing development to the West of GCHQ.
“I am having discussions with directors at RAU (Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester) regarding the funding they are looking for to build their new innovation village, that was up to £150m. They have also got significant interest.”
(The innovation village would be over a 12 hectare site and aim to bring together industry, food producers, farmers and landowners to create a global innovation park to spark entrepreneurial solutions for sustainable land use and a net zero future).
“I’m on a call this week (mid-June) with Stroud district council regarding Briscombe Port and I am on a call this week with Gloucester City regarding the Fleece development in the city centre,” said Clement.
“I was very pleased with the response we had and we have calls in the diary with development officers around the county to move their projects forward.”
He added: “It is more important that ever that Gloucestershire gets its elbows out and is in that competitive space.”
The Invest in Gloucestershire team has a particular focus on aerospace, green energy and digital sectors, he said, reminding everyone that the county had a number of areas of excellence to draw the eyes of investors.
His grand reveal was also a reminder of just how important it is for the county to present itself well at all times, and manage itself even better, because eyes are watching and it is not the only county fighting for money.
Next stops for the Invest in Gloucestershire team includes a trip to RAF Fairford in July where it will host private gatherings with aerospace representatives in a bid to win even more investment, in particular into its two airports – Cotswold Airport and Gloucestershire Airport.
“I know Gloucestershire Airport is still on the market and we are very keen to learn who the new owners of that will be,” he said.
Anyone who has read The Raikes Journal’s articles about the saga of the collapse of the sale of the Staverton site will know how its uncertain future has frozen business investment there and how that might be perceived by those looking at the county from outside.
In other potential good news Clement said interest in investing was coming from various companies from the Unites States of America.
“We have a lot to offer in Gloucestershire. We have a really strong ecosystem across those three to four sectors (aerospace, cyber, green energy and engineering) and companies are still looking to move into the UK.
“Certainly from the US we’re noticing a number of companies looking at the UK because of the current administration (in the United States). I think when they are looking at global expansion they see the UK as a safe location to move into.”
Clement said he thought group’s like Gloucestershire BIN were perfect forums for him to feedback any future news. You can learn more about the group here.