Universal Great Britain - Speculation & Rumors

[rob@rar]

Spotted an interesting comment made by the Mayor of Bedford, Tom Wootton, who told the Transport Select Committee in the House of Commons on 6 March 2024:

"...I have these Americans [Universal Studios] coming in wanting to invest in our area, the Government really have stepped up to the mark. We did months of work with them [Universal] and then handed it over to the Government. I thought that was it, but within a few days they had put a special taskforce together to encourage them. That is something exciting. That is central Government saying, “Come on, we want this.” They can do it when they want to."

This comment was in the context of how effective the processes are for national and local government to work together for major transport infrastructure, in this particular case talking about the East West Rail development which should mean a second rail station being built to serve USGB. It's yet another indication of just how much work has gone on behind the scenes before we heard any suggestion of a Universal development in Bedford. It also confirms that national government is responding extremely positively to this potential investment from Universal - even the local mayor was surprised how quickly the national government set up a task force, within days, to respond to the work which had been undertaken by Universal and the local council.

 

[Altonsky]

That’s a positive but tbh it doesn’t surprise me.

The UK is where Comcast and its subsidiaries have the biggest presence within Europe. They work with multiple different government agencies all the time.

The working relationship is already present which is one reason why they probably chose the UK.

 

[rob@rar]

One of the local MPs, Richard Fuller, Conservative MP for North East Bedfordshire, said this in the House of Commons a couple of days ago, in questions to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Lucy Frazer:

"The Secretary of State will be aware of the proposal by Universal Studios for a theme park in Bedfordshire—a £10 billion investment in the country. She will also be aware of the strong local support, led by Conservative Mayor Tom Wootton, so can she assure me and other Bedfordshire MPs that she is working hard with the Treasury to get a response to that proposal, and that a Government proposal will be forthcoming before the summer?"

The Secretary of State gave the usual kind of positive but non-committing answer:

"My hon. Friend is right to raise this very exciting opportunity for Bedfordshire, which I am pleased to have discussed with him. We are liaising closely with the Treasury, and I am also happy to continue liaising with my hon. Friend."

Couple of points stood out for me. The first was the figure of £10 billion. I can't believe Richard Fuller pulled that figure out of thin air, so presumably in his meetings with Universal they will have given him a broad indication of their initial thinking about the scale of their investment.

The second point was Richard Fuller hoping for a government proposal before the summer. I'm guessing he is referring to the Special Development Order (the planning permission that central government hopefully will pass). This seems like a fast track way of giving Universal the planning permission they need to commit to the major infrastructure development in the first instance. My concern was that approving this SDO would be held back by the parliamentary summer recess, then the delays around party conferences when the House doesn't sit, then get snarled up in the dissolution of parliament by a likely general election in the autumn. This could mean a delay of at least six months before a (probable) new government gets settled and initiates the secondary legislation required for Universal to move forwards. If the local MP is hoping the current government will move on planning permission before the summer recess that would be great news.

 

[Altonsky]

I assume the 10 billion figure would have been over a ten year period and it includes future expansion?

I don’t think there will be any delays. They’re talking to both parties in order to keep things on track, the shadow secretaries are usually always briefed on major issues so they’re in the loop anyway.

 

[bedfordmassive]

Plus the politicians mentioned (Fuller and the mayor) are both conservative. Bedford itself is Labour as is the constituency by the park - all adds up to bipartisan support. The Bedford Labour MP (Yasin) has also been very public in his support, so both parties will want to claim this as their win.

 

[rob@rar]

I don’t think there will be any delays. They’re talking to both parties in order to keep things on track, the shadow secretaries are usually always briefed on major issues so they’re in the loop anyway.

They are definitely talking to Labour as well as the current Conservative government. I think Page Thompson said at the public presentations a few days ago that he had already met with Keir Starmer, so contact at the highest level.

But for government to approve this project in the way that has been suggested, a Special Development Order, it requires both the House of Commons and the House of Lords to be sitting (I think for a period of at least 21 days). Given the usual parliamentary timetable, summer recess beginning mid-July then not getting fully back to normal sitting until October, plus the very strong likelihood of an autumn general election could mean it's simply not possible for this or a new government to table the legislation required to give the planning permission that Universal needs as parliament is not actually sitting. If they can complete this legislative process before the summer recess, as Richard Fuller suggested, that would avoid a possible delay of several months in the second half of this year.

 

[Altonsky]

Yeah exactly. I don’t think we can afford to be picky in todays economy

They say jump I’d be asking how high

 

[Altonsky]

They are definitely talking to Labour as well as the current Conservative government. I think Page Thompson said at the public presentations a few days ago that he had already met with Keir Starmer, so contact at the highest level.

But for government to approve this project in the way that has been suggested, a Special Development Order, it requires both the House of Commons and the House of Lords to be sitting (I think for a period of at least 21 days). Given the usual parliamentary timetable, summer recess beginning mid-July then not getting fully back to normal sitting until October, plus the very strong likelihood of an autumn general election could mean it's simply not possible for this or a new government to table the legislation required to give the planning permission that Universal needs as parliament is not actually sitting. If they can complete this legislative process before the summer recess, as Richard Fuller suggested, that would avoid a possible delay of several months in the second half of this year.

Maybe that’s why the Tory’s are waiting until the last possible minute to hold the election.

They want the platitudes.

 

[Alicia]

For so many reasons, this is my favorite thread on the forum currently. I’ve never experienced such exciting, interesting and consistently thorough posts! Thank you all for sharing, I’m loving every small morsel of news!

 

[Chessy]

For so many reasons, this is my favorite thread on the forum currently. I’ve never experienced such exciting, interesting and consistently thorough posts! Thank you all for sharing, I’m loving every small morsel of news!

I’m glad you’ve got great detective skills Alicia. I feel Universal would have kept it quieter for longer

 

[ProjectUniversal]

For so many reasons, this is my favorite thread on the forum currently. I’ve never experienced such exciting, interesting and consistently thorough posts! Thank you all for sharing, I’m loving every small morsel of news!

Fact is, nothing exciting ever happens in Kempston Hardwick or surrounding villages. I remember when I was at school in the 90’s and a dog got in the playground. That was a hot topic for weeks.

 

[rob@rar]

I feel Universal would have kept it quieter for longer

I'm amazed that leaks of this info didn't occur earlier. I'd guess that work inside Page Thompson's New Ventures division has been going on for at least a couple of years at identifying a potential site and preparing their pitch before they even made the first contact with stakeholders like Cloud Wing and Bedford Council. While no organisation is "leak-proof" it's probably fair to say that info is less likely to come from New Ventures than it is from miscellaneous staff and elected officials outside of the Universal company. However, discussions with Bedford Council have been going on since the first half of 2023 and maybe earlier, but still no leaks. The purchase of Cloud Wing, still no leaks. Contact with officials and ministers in the national government, still no leaks. It was many months after major progress had already been made that a small number of people around this forum, including Alicia at Theme Park Stop, were able to put together different bits of information to reveal the bigger picture. I do find that really quite amazing.

 

[JoeMcSqueezy]

For so many reasons, this is my favorite thread on the forum currently. I’ve never experienced such exciting, interesting and consistently thorough posts! Thank you all for sharing, I’m loving every small morsel of news!

It's legit just so cool to be experiencing the building of a brand new Universal Park and Resort (One in my home country, no less) and seeing all the discussion and excitement it's generating. Love it

 

[yepthatguy]

My concern was that approving this SDO would be held back by the parliamentary summer recess, then the delays around party conferences when the House doesn't sit, then get snarled up in the dissolution of parliament by a likely general election in the autumn. This could mean a delay of at least six months before a (probable) new government gets settled and initiates the secondary legislation required for Universal to move forwards. If the local MP is hoping the current government will move on planning permission before the summer recess that would be great news.

Great post. Thank you.

I can only hope that Universal knew about this and already “factored” it in.

My exact words at the consultation to Universal were simply.. “I think the UK government will “rooster” (mess) this up for you”.

 

[xtpower]

Great post. Thank you.

I can only hope that Universal knew about this and already “factored” it in.

My exact words at the consultation to Universal were simply.. “I think the UK government will “rooster” (mess) this up for you”.

I think there's a very high chance they've taken this into consideration. That might be why the rumoured June 'decision' to greenlight the park has come around. So they're probably aware that if they wanna avoid several months of 'delays' they need the SDO to get approved before recess.

 

[xtpower]

Watched a video about the pricing for Alton Towers food and beverages and it made me think about two things. Firstly it shows the complacency of Merlin in that they can hire a 3rd party for food and then allow them to raise prices to absurd levels - hopefully Universal can shock Merlin into actually putting their customers first.

Secondly the video also showed most of the non-ride buildings and it showed the surface level theming and not much else. Alot of the communal area theming is the same types of buildings with different paint jobs and signage. It's especially stark to me because I've watched a fair few reviews of the Universal Parks and it's not even a comparison.

So I have both my fingers and toes crossed we get the greenlight - we're crying out for a World Class Park to shake up the Theme Park industry over here.

 

[Altonsky]

I don’t think there’s any excuse for bad food anywhere in this day and age never mind a theme park.

I don’t get what’s so difficult. Hire the right people and they’ll come up with the correct menus for a decent price, you’ll hire the right staff who can prepare the food.

Failing that look around the local area and offer local restaurants the chance to take up a spot within the theme park.

But handing over F&B to a company who deals with prison food? That’s low.

It’s always baffled me that Alton Towers don’t do oatcakes, as far as I know anyway. It’s a local delicacy

 

[rob@rar]

.. the video also showed most of the non-ride buildings and it showed the surface level theming and not much else. Alot of the communal area theming is the same types of buildings with different paint jobs and signage. It's especially stark to me because I've watched a fair few reviews of the Universal Parks and it's not even a comparison.

Worth noting that Alton Towers (plus Thorpe, Chessington and all other UK theme parks) have significantly cheaper entry prices than Universal is almost certainly going to charge. I can't believe that any current UK theme park will be able to compete for quality in the fully-immersive themed-environments segment with what we hope Universal will offer. So they will compete on other things: price, locality, specific IP, and perhaps for Thorpe the highest/fastest coaster type of headline.

Competition will be good for all us consumers, but I don't think Merlin parks will attempt to take Universal head-on with a significant strategy shift to offer of a very similar product. What I'm more interested in is how Disney responds in Paris. For me and my family the choice of where to get our theme park fix within driving distance will be between Universal and Disneyland Paris, not Universal and Alton Towers. We've visited DLP more than 20 times since 1996, and I'm pretty sure that rate of visit will drop significantly if/when Universal opens. For well known reasons, DLP has not received much love from The Walt Disney Company over the years - it's been 20 years since the Disneyland Park received a new attraction, and only now are they investing some money in trying to fix the obvious weaknesses with the second gate. Hopefully TWDC sees Universal's plans as a direct threat to the number of UK visitors and maybe other nationalities, and responds accordingly.

 

[LoneBacon254]

Got bored and decided to compare the Core zone park to IOA,. I have no idea if the scale is off but I compared it in multiple measuring sites and ignore my rough outline it's pretty difficult to nail down. But judging from this if it even is similar in the final design we're looking at a chunky sized park more so then I originally thought!

 

[Chessy]

I’ve only visited DLP about 4 times between 1999-2007, twice with college some time ago and twice with family. I thought it was a nice resort but it definitely needed improvements, especially the WDS park. The Disney Village also IMO needed improvements (which I believe is coming). Anyhow I haven’t been since 2007 as I’ve had no desire to because nothing particularly significant has changed. That is until they open the new expansion at WDS (future Disney Adventure World). I’ve always preferred making the trip to Florida as it’s a much more rounded offering with Universal too. Naturally easier due to having the same language as well.

Disneys only real competition that does things to their level is Universal IMO. So it will be interesting to see how DLP reacts to the first bit of competition they’ve actually really had. Although it’s not directly in their backyard like it is in Orlando, they aren’t that far away at all. As Universal said in their presentation, many European capitals can be there within 3.5 hours. I think these two will be vying for best European theme park resort in the long run, there are other great parks but they are much more regional.

Alton Towers will still have its place but they are going to have to be more savvy with how they structure their prices. As people won’t be fooled into paying more for a mediocre experience unless your an enthusiast that just has to do it year in year out. Obviously Universal is filling a gap that’s been empty for quite some time in this market.

Strange question, how much do we think Universal will charge for parking here? I’m guessing between £15-£20.