Council and Rolls-Royce enter formal collaboration on Raynesway expansion

Derby City Council has teamed up with Rolls-Royce to progress plans that will bring more jobs and investment for the city.

Last week, the council’s cabinet was asked to approve plans to enter into a Planning Performance Agreement (PPA) with the engineering giant, which is looking to double the size of its Raynesway site and create over 1,000 new jobs.

The voluntary agreement will see the two major players working in close collaboration for the benefit of the city, setting out timescales, necessary resources and milestones for considering Rolls-Royce’s proposed expansion.

Councillor Shiraz Khan, the city council’s cabinet member for housing, property and regulatory services, said: “Given the huge economic benefits that will result from this scheme, it makes sense for the council to enter into this agreement with Rolls-Royce and work together to deliver the best results for the city we both call home.”

In a statement, Rolls-Royce Submarines said: “We’re immensely proud of our Derby heritage and our plans to double the size of our Raynesway site will create over a thousand new roles at Rolls-Royce, and hundreds of others across the local supply chain.

“Collaborating closely with Derby City Council through this agreement will be of huge benefit to our expansion work and ensure we recognise the increased workload our plans will put on the council’s planning team.”

The PPA allows all parties to agree on how a project will progress through the planning process, ensuring smoother operations and dedicated support from planning officers.

Agreeing to a PPA does not prejudice the determination of any regulatory application or the applicant’s ability to appeal any refusals of planning permission.

The council has said that the Raynesway project will be highly resource intensive, and additional resource will be required to progress the applications associated with the expansion. This cost will be covered by the PPA.

The financial contribution from Rolls-Royce to secure this agreement will allow the council to recover the costs of three new part-time posts for an environmental health officer, senior planning officer and planning support officer until 31 March 2031, to meet the timescales related to delivering Rolls-Royce’s Submarines’ masterplan.

Councillor Khan added: “The plans for the site are complex, and their delivery will be resource intensive.

“However, we will be able to recover the costs of additional staff from the financial contributions associated with the PPA.”

Rolls-Royce Submarines designs, manufactures and provides in-service support to the pressurised water reactors that power every boat in the Royal Navy’s submarine fleet.

It is expanding Raynesway site to meet the growth in demand from the Royal Navy.

The firm is also committed to providing all the reactors that will power the future attack submarines as part of the Australia, UK, US trilateral agreement, known as AUKUS.

This increase in demand will see new manufacturing and office facilities being built at Raynesway and will create 1,170 skilled roles across a range of disciplines, including manufacturing and engineering.

In her Autumn Budget speech last month, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said she was “supporting Team Derby” – and efforts to create one of the UK’s defence industry hubs, spearheaded by Rolls-Royce.