Is Pinewood looking to Dagenham for third London site?

Pinewood Group has expressed an interest in developing and running studios at a third London site in Dagenham, east London, according to a report in The Guardian.

Back in 2016, London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Barking and Dagenham Council leader, Darren Rodwell, announced that they were exploring plans to build what could be the capital’s largest film studios, based in Dagenham.

The potential site for new studios at Dagenham East is located in front of London-east industrial park. The area is also well connected with the District Line and Crossrail services nearby, allowing quick access to central London.

Barking and Dagenham Council began inviting expressions of interests from investors late last year. A study, jointly commissioned by Khan, Film London, the London Local Enterprise Panel and the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, found that even with expansion by other studios in the London area, the UK could need a further 800,000 square feet to 1.22m square feet of studio space by 2032.

Pinewood recently applied for planning permission to build another three sound stages on its Buckinghamshire site. This comes on top of the five it opened last July. Pinewood operates studios at Pinewood itself, Shepperton and cardiff in the UK.

Studios around London and the rest of the UK are similarly looking to expand as film and high end TV production booms in the UK.

BFI figures released in January show that the inward investment spend on film and high-end TV reached a record breaking £2.37bn in the UK in 2017

The year saw continued growth in the UK’s production sector with the total spend on film production in the UK hitting £1.9bn, a 12% increase on 2016 and the highest figures since BFI records began over 20 years ago.

The year also saw a new record for spend on inward investment film and television production with £1.69bn for film, a 23% increase on the previous year and £684m for high-end television production, a 27% increase on 2016’s level. Total spend on high end television production was £938m.