The site, which hosted the last British Garden Festival, was acquired by Mercia Real Estate in 2021

The newly-created Festival Park in Ebbw Vale has been boosted with five lettings. Owners, Birmingham-based Mercia Real Estate, have transformed the former retail park site, following its acquisition in 2021 to create 24 industrial units totalling 84,202 sq ft for local and national businesses and logistic operators,

The 70 acre site hosted the last British Garden Festival in 1992.

The 24 units range in size from 958 sq ft to 8,504 sq ft and support a range of business uses including light industrial, trade counter and storage units.

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Water Treatment Products Ltd (WTP) has signed a three year lease on the 8,478 sq ft Unit 10 – the largest unit on the estate. WTP is one of the premier water treatment chemical manufacturers in the UK.

Steve Jones, managing director, said: “Water Treatment Products employs 55 people at our manufacturing premises based in Blaenavon. The new Festival Park site gives us extra much-needed storage space and will allow the company to be more efficient and responsive to customers with its good links to the newly-completed Heads of the Valleys road network.”

Start up sheet metal fabricator Gwent Profiles has taken a five year lease on unit 20. Director Adam Rees said “We aim to supply industrial roofing products across South Wales, the south west of England, and eventually the whole of the UK.

“Having lived in the Blaenau Gwent area our entire lives, it was important that we secured premises in this area, the potential to create much needed opportunities in the area being one of our main objectives and driving force in our decision making. Growing up, the Festival Park site had always been a thriving hub in our community and we are keen to help to restore it. The units themselves had been completed to good standards and we look forward to working in a bright and clean environment.”

Local coach and minibus operator Blowers Travel Services has signed a 10 year lease on the 7,546 sq ft Unit 18.

At Unit 15, MHDA CIC, a not-for-profit dance and performing arts company established in 2003, has signed a five year lease

Florence Craft, owner and artistic director, said: “We provide high-quality training to children from age one through to adults. Securing our own dedicated premises at Festival Park marks a major milestone and the realisation of a long-held ambition for the organisation.

“Finding a space suitable for a dance academy is extremely rare and this unit stood out for its size, beautiful presentation, parking and peaceful setting.”

The existing site was chosen as the last British Garden Festival site in 1992 on what was site for the former the British Steel steel and tin works, which had been partly demolished in the early 1980s. The National Garden Festival ran from May until October 1992 and attracted over two million people.

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He argues it is causing a reduction in investment and job vacancies

The founder and chairman of JD Wetherspoon has warned the minimum wage is diminishing people’s living standards by restricting companies’ capacity to boost pay and recruit staff.

Sir Tim Martin, who lives in Devon, argues that rather than function as a safety net to safeguard workers, minimum wage is now causing more damage than benefit, following rises under both the previous Conservative administration and the current Labour government.

In an interview with the Telegraph, Sir Tim said: “The minimum wage seems to be lowering the standards of living by reducing investment and job vacancies and by increasing pay for new starters at the expense of experienced staff.

“It was a supposed to be a safety net but it’s turned into a competition between political parties as to who will offer the biggest rise.”

Most recently, the government confirmed the hourly rate for over-21s will climb by 50p to £12.71, whilst workers aged 18-20 will witness an 85p increase to £10.85, from April 2026, as reported by City AM.

A decade ago, the minimum wage stood at £7.20, with the policy introduced in 1999 to eliminate low pay.

Sir Tim’s remarks position him as the latest senior figure to question the standards of minimum wage, after Reeves’s hike was claimed to be pushing up employers’ labour expenses.

Scrutiny has gathered momentum, as Britain continues to wrestle with a cooling employment market, with the latest data showing headline unemployment has reached a five-year high of 5.2 per cent.

Inflation-busting rises have resulted in businesses recruiting fewer staff, particularly younger and less experienced workers, with the hospitality sector especially hard hit as pubs grappled with increasing business rates.

However, from April 2026, pubs in England will benefit from a 15 per cent reduction on business rates following widespread outcry. Official data revealed that the number of payrolled employees dropped by 124,000 in the 12 months to January.

Sir Tim has also previously supported Reform’s proposed pub support package, contending it would “utterly transform” the pub landscape.

In a stock exchange announcement, Martin said Reform’s proposals would provide pubs with “tax parity” with supermarkets.

He said: “By eliminating the tax differential between supermarkets and the hospitality industry, and restoring margins to devastated businesses, these changes would enable pubs to regain some, or all, of their lost trade.”

Reform’s £2.3bn pub package includes a commitment to reduce VAT in the hospitality sector by 10 per cent as well as beer duty by 10 per cent.

The party has also vowed to reverse Labour’s rise in employers’ national insurance contributions and progressively remove business rates for pubs.

The government has also committed to abolishing what it described as “discriminatory age bands” by scrapping the youth rate of minimum wage, which has existed since the system was introduced in 1999. However, the government is now understood to be reconsidering the move amid concerns it could exacerbate youth unemployment.

Graduates have increasingly been raising alarm about the jobs market, as fierce competition, reduced recruitment across certain sectors and a decline in vacancies has left many struggling to find work.

Combined with employers’ economic anxieties and technological shifts, entry-level positions in particular have taken a significant hit.

Alan Morgan, chief executive of Bella Italia owner Big Table Group, cautioned that the government’s ambition to scrap the youth rate of minimum wage would result in fewer employment opportunities.

Morgan said: “We completely agree with giving people the same pay for the same experience and outputs.

“However, by making the pay rates the same for age groups who have less or no experience, it does create a risk of employers reducing the amount of younger people they employ.”

Jeremy Hunt abolished the youth rate for 21 and 22-year-olds during his tenure as chancellor in 2024.