We have announced our intentions to expand our UK operations with the development of a new manufacturing facility in the West Midlands.

ROCKWOOL has signed an agreement to buy 114 acres of land at the Peddimore site, north of Minworth, to the north east of Birmingham, which has already been designated specifically for manufacturing use and already has outline planning permission.

In February 2025, we submitted our first planning application for the facility to Birmingham City Council. Please see the 'Our planning applications' section below for more details.   

If approved, this would be our second UK production facility alongside our existing South Wales plant, where we are also continuing to invest for the long term.

The proposals for a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility featuring proprietary electric melting technology would boost supply capacity for UK and ROI customers, whilst also supporting ROCKWOOL’s ambitious global sustainability plans.

This would create skilled, long-term jobs and local supply chain opportunities, as well as support the UK’s net zero targets and a safer built environment through ROCKWOOL’s stone wool product portfolio.

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Peddimore site comes with outline planning permission

ROCKWOOL has signed an agreement to buy 114 acres of land at the Peddimore site, north of Minworth, to the north east of Birmingham, which has already been designated specifically for manufacturing use. 

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Our planning applications

The Peddimore site is included in Birmingham City Council’s Development Plan and it already has outline planning permission for a manufacturing facility.

Key infrastructure including a new access road and roundabout into the site is already in place, servicing an adjacent warehousing facility built in 2023.

We are now adopting a two-step approach to the planning process, to ensure compliance and alignment with local planning policies and conditions, as well as the site’s existing designation and planning status. 

Step one – February 2025

Our proposals will generally align with the 2019 outline planning permission for the Peddimore site, but we are seeking to make some changes to the approved drawings, in particular to adjust maximum permissible building height limits. 

To do this, we submitted this ‘Section 73’ planning application to Birmingham City Council in early February 2025. The application was then registered and published by Birmingham City Council on 26 February. You can view and download the documents we submitted from the list below:
 

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Now that the application has been submitted, Birmingham City Council will evaluate the plans and conduct its own consultation around them as part of its standard process for examining planning applications of this nature. You can access the application details here on Birmingham City Council’s website.

We anticipate a decision from the council in the spring/summer of 2025.

Step two – late 2025/early 2026

Should our Section 73 application prove successful, we will follow with a Reserved Matters application. This will include the detailed aspects of the project, including building design and appearance, site layout, access arrangements, and landscaping, to complete the full consenting process.

We currently anticipate that this application could be made in late 2025/early 2026 and we will provide further details and updates in due course.

Job and supply chain opportunities

Prospectively, if our proposals are approved, the facility could become operational during 2029.

This would create good quality jobs and training and supply chain opportunities for local people and businesses. Whilst it is still early in the process, we’re always keen to talk to people who might be interested in working with us in connection with these opportunities.

Email: recruitmentUK@rockwool.com 

Community engagement plans

Our initial pre-application consultation relating to our Section 73 application has now finished. 

We have published a summary of our engagement process, consultation feedback and ROCKWOOL’s responses to that feedback in a Statement of Community Involvement, which was submitted as part of our Section 73 planning application to Birmingham City Council in February 2025.

During 2025/26, we plan to undertake a further pre-application consultation before we submit a Reserved Matters application, which will give more detail about the design, landscaping and other aspects of our proposal.

While the consultation has closed for our initial Section 73 application, we welcome ongoing feedback on our proposals. You can reach us via our dedicated inbox - community@rockwool.com.

You can view the consultation materials here by downloading our community leaflet or our information boards from our drop-in open house events.

You can also sign up for email updates for more information as we progress with our plans.