Brentwood

A busy and popular commuter town situated just north of the M25 J28 and most recently becoming famous (infamous?) as the original base for the TV show ‘The Only Way is Essex’. Its positioning close to the M25, and alongside the A12 and A127, makes the town highly accessible by road; however, both Brentwood and Shenfield stations are on the main London Liverpool Street to Norwich line and therefore offer regular and swift services into London.

Brentwood’s main High Street remains its core and has diversified well in retail terms over recent years to meet the now normal High Street challenges.

Brentwood has always contained a large amount of office stock, but in recent times a large number of earlier examples from the 1960s and 1970s have been converted to residential leaving more modern space such as Academy Place and Warley Business Park, the latter being home to the head office of Countryside Plc. There continues to be a wide range of companies housed in the key office locations, many of which have links to company functions in the City of London as support/back-up space.

At this time, Brentwood has very limited industrial/warehouse space since many of the older estates were redeveloped for the residential sector. To the east of Brentwood’s boundary there are proposals for some new B2/B8 commercial developments, but, in terms of those uses, Brentwood’s proximity to Harold Hill (Romford) to the south and Basildon to the east dilute that demand locally.