Homes England contracts Vistry Partnerships to develop Kidderminster scheme

By Nicky Godding

17 June 2020

Share

The Business Magazine article image for: Homes England contracts Vistry Partnerships to develop Kidderminster scheme

Homes England has completed the sale of two sites to developer and regeneration company Vistry Partnerships which will see 935 homes be built.

600 homes will be built at the former Lea Castle hospital site near Kidderminster, with work set to start on site immediately. The scheme will be delivered by Lea Castle JV LLP, a joint venture between Vistry and Citizen Housing and will consist of one, two, three and four-bedroom homes in a range of tenures.

Detailed planning consent has recently been secured by Vistry Partnerships for the 49-hectare site via virtual planning committee, and this scheme will also deliver affordable housing in excess of what is required by the local planning authority.

As part of Homes England’s commitment to placemaking, the agency is promoting adjacent land for employment opportunities, such as a community hub, flexible office space and a café and shop. The planning application is supported by landscape proposals which include open spaces, play areas, habitat creation and a woodland management plan.

At the Sandymoor site in Halton, Yorkshire the government’s housing agency has concluded a deal with Vistry Partnerships to develop 11 hectares of land for delivery of 335 homes.

Stephen Kinsella, Chief Land and Development Officer at Homes England, said: "At both sites we’re delivering more affordable homes than were required, and at Lea Castle, development will be able to start on site immediately thanks to Vistry securing reserved matters planning consent via virtual planning committee.

Stephen Teagle, Vistry Partnerships CEO, added: "We are very pleased to once again be working in partnership with Homes England to transform these two important sites. These vital developments increase the number of homes that we are currently delivering on Homes England’s sites to over 3,000."

Following the closure of residential development sites thanks to Coronavirus, Vistry Partnerships now has more than 5,000 people working on 74 contracting sites and 34 mixed tenure sites across the UK.

By Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe.

After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts.

She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.