The timber frame is now standing at Cheadle Eco Park, the £25 million Stockport scheme set to become the largest purpose-built industrial and logistics development in the UK with a structure made entirely from sustainably sourced timber. That is according to Stockport Council, which owns the seven-acre Bird Hall Lane site and confirmed the frame’s erection as the most visible stage yet in a build underway since March.
“Light-industrial development can be delivered differently in a cleaner, smarter way,” said Micheala Meikle, the Stockport Council cabinet member for economy, regeneration and skills, who wants the borough setting the standard for the region and the UK. Swapping timber for a traditional steel frame, alongside sustainably sourced materials throughout, cuts the scheme’s embodied carbon by 40 per cent.
Industrial and logistics buildings remain a market where steel portal frames dominate, and mass timber has made little headway, a gap the UK Government’s Timber in Construction Roadmap has targeted since 2023. The frame-up follows Heathrow’s decision to rebuild its Eastern Business Park warehouses in timber and steel, with Network Space Developments calling Cheadle a UK first at this scale.
“Integrating a large-scale engineered timber frame within an industrial building typology” is how Wilde Consulting Engineers described the core delivery challenge after three years on the project team. The firm ran structural embodied carbon reviews in line with IStructE guidance and stayed on the scheme from early design through to construction.
Caddick Construction started on site in March, and Dave Saville, its North West regional managing director, said the now-completed frame has generated real excitement for a project he expects to set a new standard for sustainable industrial development. Momentum on site, Saville added, has grown with every stage of the build.
Every unit will run all-electric, with Tony Fox, the Network Space Developments technical director, confirming a specification including VRF heating and cooling, rooftop solar, smart building controls, and EV charging, all built to hold occupier running costs down. Designed by AEW Architects, the scheme aims for BREEAM Outstanding, a rating reserved for the top 1 per cent of non-residential buildings in the UK and awarded only when schemes score at least 85 per cent against the assessment.
Older industrial buildings once filled the brownfield plot, which is being remade with new tree planting, biodiverse landscaping, swales, a rain garden and upgraded walking and cycling links that feed Stockport’s Climate Action Now plan and its 2038 carbon-neutral target. Inside the estate, six units from 8,374 to 43,800 sq ft will supply 117,000 sq ft of workspace for lower-impact occupiers, with CBRE and B8 marketing the space as joint letting agents.
A £4.4 million grant from the UK Government’s Town Fund backs the build, which has been central to Cheadle’s Town Investment Plan since planning approval in June 2024. Network Space Developments is the development manager for landowner Stockport Council, while Brian Bradley, the Cheadle Towns Fund Board chair, called the frame’s erection a landmark moment for a project moving at pace.
