THE owners of The Heath Business Park in Runcorn are in talks to expand by taking over an Essex site.

SOG is working with drug giant Sanofi-Aventis and Barking and Dagenham Council on the future of the 75-year-old site.

The services company specialises in operating science facilities, taking previously single-owner sites and developing them into science-focused business parks.

SOG already manages The Heath and a former ICI research, development and production centre, Hexagon Tower, in Blackley, north Manchester. The two sites employ more than 2,000 people.

It has developed the Fusion Project, which is a blueprint to demonstrate how ailing sites can be regenerated and how large organisations can downsize into a smaller footprint.

The key to the model is the protection of skilled workforces, keeping the often highly-specialist expertise before it is dissipated and lost.

SOG founder Dr Peter Cook said: “What we have done at The Heath is retain the skills. The traditional view is to get rid of the people and look at the buildings but by then you have thrown the gold dust away. The gold dust is in the people.

“Science and technology is vital to the future prosperity of the UK economy and it is essential that we protect this unique skill base, which is precisely what the Fusion Project sets out to do.

“Replicating The Heath’s success could create a new UK scientific platform which would be a magnet for other research and development specialists from across the world.”