Homes England Ramp Up Development Pipeline

The UK Government Housing Agency, Homes England, have revealed that it has acquired 19 sites in the last financial year. The sites amount to £180 million, with the land having a capacity for 5,000 new homes throughout the country.

From these, several of the major acquisitions were completed in the time leading up to the end of the financial year, and demonstrated how the agency takes a long-term view of housing demand, and is continuing to develop a strong pipeline of projects in order to support the recovery of the housing sector, once it starts to recover after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Homes England been able to acquire challenging or stalled sites which haven’t been ale to progress without public sector intervention, and they have used their sources and expertise to unblock them for development and bring them back to market, which results in much needed new homes.

The sites they have gained include:

• 37-hectare Panshanger Aerodrome in Welwyn Garden City, bringing forward one of the region’s largest housing developments which has capacity for 815 homes. Thirty per-cent of the new homes will include affordable housing, with the development also including a new primary school, a community centre and self-build plots. Homes England will also deliver the infrastructure on site before marketing the site to developers in parcels, which will accelerate the delivery of new homes.
• In Birmingham, they have acquired a 2.5-hectare parcel of land in Digbeth from Birmingham City Council, the Montague Street site is the final lot of land the agency has made of four land parcels within the area. It will create one of the largest development sites in Birmingham city centre, with a capacity for 1,000 homes and 25,000 sq metres of employment space.
• 10-hectare Brislington Meadows which has the capacity for 300 homes has been brought to Homes England’s ownership. The site was allocated in Bristol’s Local Plan since 2014, but it has been stalled until Homes England’s intervention, there is expected to be a minimum of 30% affordable housing.
• They have also acquired 81 hectares of land in Darlington, where 800 new homes will be constructed as part of the Burtree Garden Village. This represents just under half of the total proposed Garden Village site, with Homes England entering a collaboration agreement with lead developer, Hellens Group. The two will work together with adjacent landowners on site-wide infrastructure to enable delivery of the entire scheme.
• In Rugby, Warwickshire, the agency has acquired 65 hectares of land from Warwickshire Country Council, which is expected to deliver 900 homes. They will also deliver infrastructure and a link road which is crucial to the wider South West Rugby expansion in order to accelerate the pace of construction of the new homes.

Simon Dudley, Interim Homes England Chair said: “It is testament to the hard work and dedication of colleagues and our partners that we’ve met such a strong year-end at this challenge and unprecedented time.

“I want to reassure the sector that Homes England is very much open for business and investing in a long-term pipeline of development opportunities to support market recovery.

“The need for new housing will remain a priority, so we will continue to create opportunities for future development and support the Government’s housebuilding objectives.”

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