£200m Knauf Insulation factory at Shotton moves to planning stage
Knauf Insulation has submitted a planning application to Flintshire County Council for a rock mineral wool factory at Deeside Industrial Park in Shotton.
The investment is now valued at around £200 million, up from the £180 million announced when the project’s Growth Deal outline business case was approved by Ambition North Wales.
The cover letter accompanying the application, states the factory would create over 137 direct jobs at the Shotton site, with additional roles in the supply chain.
The application describes the development as a manufacturing plant for non-combustible insulation products, with storage, office space, a guardhouse, vehicle access, landscaping, parking and associated infrastructure.
It also includes the demolition, remediation and refurbishment of existing buildings on the site.
The factory would have an annual production capacity of more than 100,000 tonnes, according to figures from the earlier Growth Deal approval.
One of the most visible elements of the plan is a 120-metre main chimney stack.
The environmental statement submitted with the application confirms the stack was doubled in height from the original 60 metres to reduce the concentration of nitrogen, ammonia and acid deposited on protected wildlife sites in the surrounding area.
The site sits on the edge of the Dee Estuary Special Protection Area and Ramsar site, which are internationally designated for their importance to wintering and migratory waterbirds.
A small section of the Dee Estuary SPA and the Shotton Lagoons and Reedbeds SSSI physically intersects the site boundary along an existing access road, though the overlap is less than 0.01 hectares and consists entirely of hardstanding already in use by vehicles.
The common tern breeding colony at Shotton Lagoons and Reedbeds SSSI sits approximately 250 metres from the access road associated with the development.
The environmental statement notes that the colony was hit by outbreaks of high pathogenicity avian influenza in both 2023 and 2025, with the number of nests recorded in 2024 the lowest since 2015.
The applicant’s environmental consultants, WSP, assessed the factory’s effects on the tern colony and other designated sites and concluded that none would be significant with the proposed mitigation measures in place.
Natural Resources Wales was consulted during the scoping process and initially requested an additional year of wintering bird survey data but later accepted that one year’s data was sufficient.
Ecological surveys carried out between 2024 and 2025 found evidence of badger, transient otter, multiple bat species including lesser horseshoe bat, barn owl, Cetti’s warbler, common lizard and grass snake on or near the site.
A separate stage of remediation and site preparation, subject to its own planning consent, would result in what the environmental statement describes as the “near-total loss of all habitats” within the main factory footprint.
The environmental impact of that clearance is assessed in a separate environmental statement, not in the documents submitted with this application.
The factory’s environmental statement instead assesses its effects against a “predicted baseline,” meaning the condition of the site after habitats have already been removed.
The project is part-funded through the North Wales Growth Deal, with £14.397 million of Growth Deal funding allocated to the scheme.
When the outline business case was approved, Cllr Dave Hughes, Leader of Flintshire County Council and Lead Member for the Ambition North Wales High Value Manufacturing Programme, said:
“This is an exciting project that brings together innovation and sustainability. We’re proud to support a project that tackles some of the most pressing challenges in construction, from decarbonisation to fire safety, while securing long-term employment and investment for our communities.”
Ian Gornall, Project Director at Knauf Insulation, said at the same stage:
“This investment underlines our confidence in North Wales as a hub for innovation and advanced manufacturing. The new facility will help us meet growing demand for non-combustible, low-carbon insulation, supporting the UK’s net zero and building safety goals.”
The planning application was submitted by WSP on behalf of Knauf Insulation Limited.
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