Ravenscraig can help power Scotland’s next industrial era
As featured in The Herald
Ravenscraig has always been a place shaped by industry, ambition and change. For generations, the steelworks powered jobs, families and communities across North Lanarkshire. When it closed, it left behind not only one of Europe’s largest brownfield sites, but a challenge to create a new future worthy of the people and communities whose lives had been shaped by its industrial past.
Over the past three decades, Ravenscraig has become one of Europe’s largest brownfield regeneration and community creation initiatives. More than £250 million has been invested, more than 1,000 homes have been built and a new community is taking shape alongside major facilities for education, sport, employment and leisure.
Transforming 1,200 acres of former industrial land takes patience, partnership and perseverance over a long-term project. It also requires continued investment and the ability to adapt as the needs of the economy and society change. This included when the revised Ravenscraig Masterplan was approved in 2020, reflecting shifting lifestyles and market conditions with a focus on mixed-use development.
That is also why the proposed data centre and energy campus being brought forward by Apatura represents such an exciting opportunity for Ravenscraig. There is a real opportunity for Ravenscraig to be at the forefront of green data centres and the growth of digital infrastructure, which will transform Scotland's economy.
Development at Ravenscraig (Image: McAteer)
The proposal would bring together infrastructure and innovation at a scale capable of creating tangible economic and social benefits for North Lanarkshire, Scotland and the wider UK economy. Ravenscraig offers a rare combination of scale, power availability and strategic location capable of attracting globally significant investment. Importantly, this investment would be delivered on former industrial land rather than greenbelt land, ensuring economic growth is aligned with sustainable land use.
With grid connections in place, post-industrial brownfield land secured, and a delivery team aligned, we have a fully viable site within the Ravenscraig masterplan to meet the UK’s digital infrastructure needs.
That matters because data centres are recognised as essential infrastructure. They support the digital services that underpin modern life, from business and education to healthcare and transport. The global race to secure the infrastructure required for the digital economy is accelerating, and Scotland has an opportunity to play a meaningful role.
For Ravenscraig, the business case goes beyond digital infrastructure alone. This is a multi-billion pound investment project that could act as a financial catalyst for the wider regeneration of the site. Ravenscraig is a not-for-profit development, where income from land sales is reinvested into ongoing regeneration and remediation works. And as a former steelworks, unlocking land for future development requires significant remediation works, for which we have recently secured planning for 200-acres.
Development at Ravenscraig (Image: McAteer)
The success of Apatura’s proposal for Ravenscraig supports our major remediation works which ultimately enables over 2,400 new homes, a new primary school and 48,000 sqm of town centre retail and leisure space.
The proposal has the potential to support billions of pounds of investment, significant annual economic output and around 2,200 long-term permanent jobs once operational, alongside opportunities throughout construction and the supply chain. There is a real opportunity here to create a lasting legacy of well paid jobs for the local community and the wider Scottish economy.
We also see opportunities for skills and training partnerships, particularly with the education institutions already located around Ravenscraig such as New College Lanarkshire. Supporting the industries of tomorrow means ensuring local people have opportunities to develop the skills needed to participate in them.
Ravenscraig's future is more than building new infrastructure, it should also ensure investment creates lasting benefits for the communities around it, rebuilding prosperity, restoring pride, and delivering a new era of sustainable industry.
Where steel once powered Scotland's industrial economy, Ravenscraig now has the opportunity to help support the clean and digital economy of the future. That would be a powerful next chapter in the story Ravenscraig, one that honours its past while helping create the investment, jobs and opportunities that future generations deserve.
Russell Wilkie is Development Director at Ravenscraig Ltd
