Is a Universal Studios UK announcement finally going to happen?

Theme Park enthusiasts across the country have been waiting for further news on a Universal Studios UK announcement for a while now. There was initially some hope that it would be part of the Chancellor’s announcements for growth a few weeks ago but despite mentions of Bedford during the speech there was no mention of Universal Studios.

Today however, the Mirror is running an article with the headline ‘UK Universal Studios theme park to get go-ahead within weeks with Florida-style resort coming to market town‘

In the article The Mirror reports that the final hurdle to Universal Studios UK finally getting the go-ahead is for the Treasury to sign off the financial arrangements for the plan which will likely include Government funding to improve local rail and road infrastructure and tax breaks for Universal as this project will bring a lot of jobs, tourism and growth to the UK leisure industry.

The Mirror also reports that the plan would be for a 4-zone park and 500 room hotel with transport hubs and a new train station.

They also report that during construction alone it will create 20,000 jobs and pump £50 bullion into the UK economy which, let’s face it, the UK is in desperate need for!

It’s expected the project would take 6 years to build which means we could be looking at a 2031 opening with recent reports suggesting that fencing and road blocks have now been delivered to the site in Bedford and that Universal Studios have filed trademarks in the UK.

This is all incredibly exciting news for the UK Theme Park industry and will likely bring additional visitors to our existing parks too and hopefully encourage Merlin to put the investment into their parks they so desperately need to (rather than making cuts).