A FAMILY business which employs 30 people is being ‘forced out’ of the city because of a shortage of suitable buildings, the boss says.

PSV Wipers, in Navigation Road, Worcester, will leave Diglis industrial estate towards the end of March or in early April.

The manufacturer has come to the end of its 25-year lease and cannot find another suitable building in Worcester.

The Canal and River Trust is selling the section of the dilapidated industrial estate where PSV Wipers is currently based, but there are currently no public plans for the future of the land.

Jamie Curry, commercial manager of PSV, which makes windscreen wipers, said: “Worcester is becoming a place to live rather than to work.

“We have been forced to move, given that there are no new industrial areas appropriate for our use in Worcester.

“It’s a shame to move. Our company has always been based in Worcester since its creation [in 1980].

“Other than Blackpole – which is very old now – there’s nowhere for us to go.”

Mr Curry, aged 27, said people will have to commute out of Worcester for work if houses keep replacing factories.

He added that the new industrial buildings being built in the city tend to cater for distribution companies instead of light manufacturers.

“It’s appalling for British manufacturing,” he said. “If you’re a SME [small and medium-sized enterprise], there’s no real commercial property between 5,000 and 20,000 square foot in Worcester. We are 20,000 square foot.

“There are not many businesses here in Diglis now. [The businesses] are not manufacturing, they are buying and selling.”

He said most of his staff will now have to drive to the company’s new home in Pershore.

Mr Curry added that while he is sad to leave Worcester, he is also excited about the move.

A spokesman for Herefordshire & Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce said: “We’ve heard from some firms that there is a lack of available space to expand into.

“We want to see growing companies grow in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, not move elsewhere.

“This is why it features in our manifesto for 2018 and we encourage local government to open up more land for business use in the region and provide more support for expanding firms.”

Gary Woodman, CEO of Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership, said there was a shortage of small to medium sized industrial buildings.

He said: “That size [20,000 square foot] creates a challenge for the market.

“We are working with the private sector and local authority to increase the supply of those types of units.

“We recognise that we have to get some of those 20,000 square foot units on Worcester Six Business Park.”

He said light manufacturing units are quickly snapped up when they become available in places like Blackpole.

Mr Woodman added that agents are more attracted to larger sites as they can acquire longer leases from big companies.

A Worcester City Council spokesman said: “The South Worcestershire Development Plan has been created to create balance between the need for land for homes and the need for land for employment.

“It allocates a total of 309 hectares of employment land over the lifetime of the plan – 124 hectares within or immediately adjacent to Worcester city, with approximately 55,000 square metres of office space in the city centre, 39 hectares for Malvern Hills and 146 hectares for Wychavon.”

PSV Wipers, which makes windscreen wipers for the military, train companies and other customers, made more than £1million last year.

The Canal and River Trust was unavailable for comment on its reasons for selling the land.