Insight 3

A blueprint for regional excellence

Stevenage is already a world-class life sciences hub, a position centred on expertise in cell and gene therapy.

Big pharma in the form of GSK provides the foundation of what is the third largest cell and gene cluster globally, with a significant concentration of research, development, and manufacturing.

Now UBS and Reef Group's Elevate Quarter campus is expanding the footprint with a £66 million investment that complements existing anchors in the town - GSK, the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult, and Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst.

The new campus will be adjacent to GSK and deliver Elevate Quarter is a 15-building life science campus that aims to be one of Europe's largest, with a total space of 1.6 million square feet (148,645 sq m) for labs, offices, and GMP manufacturing facilities. It's designed to promote collaboration between life science companies and offer amenities like restaurants, cafes, and leisure facilities.

‘’It’s addressing a crucial national gap in cleanroom and commercialisation capacity,”

said Ellie Junod.

Pictured: Stevenage

She described one of the town’s existing success stories – Autolus, UCL spin-out, which scaled up in Stevenage and now operates the UK’s first CAR-T cell manufacturing facility, employing 350 people.

That’s a full UK success story—from spin-out to advanced therapy manufacturing, all on home soil."

Notably, Stevenage Borough Council was praised for being "commercially minded and easy to work with," an example of how local authorities can act as enablers. Sean Bradley echoed the point. Morgan Sindall Construction’s Northern Home Counties business has been appointed by the Council to help deliver a multi-million-pound Sports and Leisure Hub, as part of the town’s wider regeneration plans. Procured through SCAPE’s National Construction Framework, the project will consolidate Stevenage’s health and wellbeing offering, which is currently positioned across three different sites.

Ellie Junod remarked that the town has become a magnet for scaling businesses priced out of London and is positioned to absorb the manufacturing phase that London clusters can’t.

However, she warned of macro headwinds and emphasised two critical needs from government: policy stability to encourage long-term investment, and infrastructure funding, particularly in power and connectivity, to enable AI-heavy R&D environments.