Office use collapse hits £29m Tweedbank innovation park

Only the first phase of the £29m innovation park in the Borders has been built

The change in post-Covid work routines has hit plans for a £29m innovation park in the Borders.

The development near the Tweedbank terminus of the Borders railway was announced in 2019 and hoped to create nearly 400 jobs.

However, demand for office space has collapsed since then with only the first phase having been built.

Scottish Borders Council is now reviewing the project with a fresh business case being drawn up.

The project was confirmed four years ago - before the pandemic - after securing support from the Edinburgh and South East Region City Deal.

It was expected to create hundreds of jobs and boost the local economy by £350m.

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However, only the first part of it has been completed which includes the headquarters of CGI which took over the council's IT services in 2016.

Councillors have now agreed to go back to the drawing board and look at a complete revamp of the proposals.

Council deputy leader Scott Hamilton said it was a question of looking at how they could do things differently.

"We still have that land, we still have the city deal's funding and support and we need to work out what is best use of that land," he said.

"It is not that it will never be redeveloped - it will never be that it won't go forward - it is just simply we need to make sure we have got the right development in the right place.

"It is still going to be an innovation park - we have to make that clear - but what it will be is maybe a different look to how it was originally visualised."