Once complete in 2027, Wembley Park will be home to around 20,000 people as the largest single site of Build to Rent homes in the UK. As owner and operator of the 85-acre estate, Quintain is faced with a number of unique challenges and benefits. Building 8,400 homes (1,900 of which are on track to being handed over in 2020) is a considerable challenge but one Quintain’s exceptional team can navigate with the support of carefully executed logistics.
In June 2017 Quintain began a joint research project with the London School of Economics (LSE), whose Professor of Urban Studies, Ricky Burdett, is an advisor to the company’s board. The research involved students on the LSE’s Executive MSc in Cities programme exploring the key issues facing Quintain as the developer behind the transformation of its 85-acre Wembley Park estate, including the logistics involved in building the vast neighbourhood and the long-term challenges of supporting a community made up predominantly of renters.
The study’s findings confirmed the vital need for on-site consolidation centres in order to manage both the delivery of construction materials during the estate’s build phases and parcel storage/distribution thereafter to service the predicted 20,000 residents who will live at Wembley Park upon completion.
Whilst Wembley Park goes through such an incredible period of transformation, it is vitally important for the environment and the community that construction is carried out in a safe and considerate way. Varying forms of consolidation facilities at Wembley Park have proven to be fundamental in supporting site-wide logistics during the recent intense years of construction and ensuring that Quintain continues to take measures to become a more sustainable developer. The facilities have helped to streamline the distribution of materials through the supply chain and throughout Wembley Park’s various developments thus promoting efficiency in that ‘final mile’ across site and minimising disruption to the environment and local community by significantly reducing vehicle movements.
There are two key consolidation facilities currently supporting Wembley Park’s development: a vehicle holding area and a construction logistics hub. In addition to these, a separate consolidation facility is being developed in preparation for managing the many thousands of daily parcels expected once the population of Wembley Park nears 20,000.
Large delivery vehicles are required to check in at Wembley Park’s holding area with Alandale, Quintain’s logistics partner, until contractors are ready to take the deliveries on site; there have been around 180,000 vehicles check in there since January 2017. At peak times the holding area has accepted as many as 9,000 vehicles a month - illustrating the vital need for putting consolidation systems in place to alleviate the pressure on Wembley Park’s road network.
Wembley Park’s construction logistics hub however is where smaller, one-off deliveries are directed. These items are consolidated and taken on a ‘milk run’ around the estate, as and when they are required. This includes everything from small pipework to pallets of paper for Quintain’s various offices.
Looking to the future, it is a similar offering to Wembley Park’s logistics hub facility, but with a longer-term capacity, that Quintain’s development team is now proposing in order to alleviate congestion from postal and courier deliveries across the estate for the growing number of Wembley Park residents. Whichever format it comes in, a permanent delivery consolidation facility of some sort is fundamental as it is expected that for every seven residential homes at Wembley Park, an average of one parcel will arrive on site per day - equating to an expected 1,214 deliveries a day upon the estate’s completion. Recent events have undoubtedly reinforced society’s reliance on delivery services, so a site-wide logistics hub will likely become even more crucial to Quintain’s efficient operation of the 85-acre estate and its 8,400 homes.
