Rishi Sunak’s ambition for Britain to become a “science superpower” has been dealt another blow, with new figures highlighting the nation’s dearth of laboratories.
Knight Frank, the property agent, has calculated that businesses are looking for 2.2 million sq ft of laboratory space in the “Golden Triangle” between Oxford, Cambridge and London, where much of Britain’s life sciences industry is based. However, there is only 385,000 sq ft of available space, leaving a shortfall equivalent to 280 football pitches.
“Recently announced government funding packages and measures aimed at accelerating the sector’s growth – though positive steps, reflecting the importance of life sciences to the economy – increase the urgency with which new high-quality space must be delivered in markets of particularly high demand,” Emma Goodford,
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