YTL Arena Bristol will be 100% privately funded

The Arena Complex will be fully funded by YTL, requiring no public money to transform the iconic Brabazon hangars into a 365-day-a-year entertainment destination.

In November 2019, we submitted a planning application to build a 17,080-capacity arena, putting Bristol on the world stage for live music and entertainment. This will be fully paid for by YTL, with no additional cost to taxpayers.

After the council rejected plans for a city centre arena in 2018, YTL explored the possibility of transforming the Brabazon hangars into a world-class arena. The already planned reopening of the North Filton station played an important role in YTL’s decision to repurpose the Brabazon hangars into an arena.

The Arena is part of a new YTL development called Brabazon, a £2bn investment that will become one of Bristol’s best-connected neighbourhoods. Over the next 20 years, Brabazon will become a new urban community, with over 2,600 homes, a new commercial quarter and major new transport links.

While the reopening of the North Filton station will provide links to YTL Arena Bristol and Brabazon, it is an entirely separate development run by MetroWest. In December 2011, a South Gloucestershire Council planning committee recommended that North Filton station, along with Henbury station, be re-opened for passenger services, four years before YTL bought Filton Airfield.

In 2018, YTL signed The Cribbs Patchway New Neighbourhood (CPNN) framework agreement. The agreement ensures that full funding is in place to deliver the new railway station at Filton North, as well as a dedicated MetroBus, connecting Cribbs Causeway directly to the city centre via YTL Arena Bristol. It also provides for major upgrades to the local road network. All the new transport connections will be delivered by 2022.

In total, all developers bound by the agreement, also signed by local landowners including Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey, will be contributing almost £100 million into CPNN. This will help fund a new secondary school, two new community centres and five new primary schools along with contributing towards local infrastructure improvements.