From Dorchester to Inverurie, new settlements are planned around the UK. Tony Hazell takes a look at what is being built and who is behind the projects.
When the Prince of Wales decided to oversee the development of a new settlement at Poundbury on Duchy of Cornwall land to the west of Dorchester, it gave a blue-blooded stamp of authority to new village settlements in our countryside. Poundbury harks back to the idea of a traditional English village with individual character houses, winding streets that lead somewhere and village squares to restrict traffic speed. Homes will usually have parking to the rear.
The 400-acre project with 2,000 to 3,000 homes will take 25 years to complete. Phase one is to include 244 houses and flats, 16,000 sq ft of offices, 10,000 sq ft of shopping and 8,000 sq ft of industrial space. The development will kick off with 61 homes by local builder C G Fry & Son.
In a DOE-commissioned report, Alternative Development Patterns – New Settlements, published at the end of last year, it was stated that 184 new settlements had been proposed between 1980 and June 1 1992, 60 of them in the South East. If all had been granted permission, 175,000 homes would have been built in new settlements. Most recent schemes have been for fewer than 1,500 dwellings and, increasingly, the schemes are promoted through the local planning system rather than speculatively, said the report.
Some county councils have now adopted policies promoting new settlements or consultation drafts which consider new settlements. These are intended to relieve growth pressures. But the report states that clear central Government guidance is needed.
Aside from the obvious profit motive, new settlements offer developers the chance to put their stamp on an area. “Designing and planning a new settlement is a very complex, but exciting, project,” says Stuart Milligan, planing director with Redrow.
Redrow is involved at Dickens Heath, which will provide 750 homes plus shops, a school and other amenities on 120 acres near Solihull in Warwickshire. Berkeley Homes, Trencherwood and Bryant Homes are also involved. Milligan says: “The new village concept was put forward in the Solihull unitary development plan as a way of satisfying housing needs at one location rather than encroaching on green belt land on all sides of the town. Plans for Dickens Heath include low-, medium- and high-density housing plus all the services which you would expect to find in a traditional English village.”
Redrow is one of a dozen developers which has been building at Bradley Stoke, the 1,000-acre scheme north of Bristol. Some 4,200 homes have been built since 1987 – by the turn of the century the total should reach 8,500.
Also involved is Second City (South West), a Beazer Homes subsidiary which has completed three phases of 91, 66 and 55 homes. Its fourth-phase homes range from one-bedroom flats at £37,950 to four-bedroom detached properties for £84,950.
“Like every developer we have found it tough recently, but, despite this, 11 people have already moved in on the fourth phase. The housing element has got ahead of the commercial, which is a reflection of the market,” explains Keith Pepperdine, sales director of Second City (South West).
Contracts have been exchanged between the owners of 115 acres of land at Hartwell, near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, and a consortium of four housebuilders, which will lead to the creation of a new community of some 1,500 homes. The land, known as Coldharbour Farm, has been owned for many years by Ernest Cook Trust. It will be sold in stages to Admiral Homes, Taywood Homes, Bryant Homes and Wimpey Homes, but the trust will retain an influence. The masterplan was prepared by London architect John Simpson & Partners, and homes will range from one- to five-bedroom properties. There will also be shops, community buildings, employment areas and playing fields, while Waterside footpaths and cycleways will be threaded through the development.
The two local authorities, Aylesbury Vale District Council and Buckinghamshire County Council, are also party to the contracts. Chesterton has been appointed project manager.
Elsewhere in Buckinghamshire, work is under way on the masterplan for a 1,365-home community at Tattenhoe on the south-western edge of Milton Keynes. The development is expected to take seven years. Admiral Homes, which is responsible for the infrastructure work, will soon begin the 125 dwellings which it plans over the next three years. Tattenhoe has natural amenities such as Howe Park Wood and Loughton Valley with its brook and lakes.
“We will be adding extensive formal and informal landscaping to this, along with a series of urban design events,” says Admiral’s commercial director, Peter Fulcher. “When complete, Tattenhoe will be rather like a grand country house estate with a generous share of enviable amenities.” The first Admiral Homes phase – in an area called Kings Gate – will be a mix of two-, three- and four-bedroom properties, with prices starting at £50,000. The agents are Densons of Milton Keynes; Bellway Homes and Bellcross Homes are the other two builders involved.
Work started on Countryside Properties’ Great Notley settlement in Essex last October. Located on 485 acres of former farmland, it is being built as three distinct hamlets, which will eventually make up a village of 2,000 homes and more than 5,000 residents. “We had more than 5,000 people through on the first weekend,” says Countryside’s development director, Chris Crook. “The first three people moved in before Christmas and so far every property has been sold before completion.”
The first phase of 80 properties will have two-, three- and four-bedroom houses, but one- and five-bedroom properties will be built later. Prices in this phase range from £54,950 to £170,000. David Wilson Homes is also developing on the first phase.
More than 900, out of a planned 5,000, homes have been built at Chafford Hundred in Grays Thurrock, Essex. The development, on 600 acres, will take place during 10 years. Land sales in the north-east area of the development are virtually completed: nine parcels of land have been built out and sold, with 12 parcels under construction or ready to start. Fairclough Homes is building two- and three-bedroom properties, Belwinch Homes is developing three- and four-bedroom properties and Hassall Homes started work on two- and three-bedroom homes last month.
McLean Homes South East recently opened its fourth show home and already has 15 of its three- and four-bedroom homes reserved. Tilbury Douglas has 43 out of 62 homes reserved. McLean Homes North London recently purchased its third parcel of land and Admiral Homes recently bought its second, following the sales of all its homes on The Anchorage. Chafford Hundred Ltd has developed two land parcels. Prices for first-time-buyer homes at Seymour Gate start at £39,995.
King Hill in Kent is being developed by Rouse Kent on the outskirts of West Malling. New homes will be arranged in villages each with its own identity and features. There will also be business space and a new campus for the University of Greenwich and a hotel/conference centre and golf course. Developers involved include Countryside Residential and Woolwich Countryside – a joint venture between Countryside and Woolwich Homes. Countryside Residential is constructing 37 four-bedroom executive homes in the first phase at prices from £152,500, while Woolwich Countryside is building two-, three- and four-bedroom houses at prices from £87,000 to £150,000 as part of the Garden Village section in a phase called Miller’s Loft.
A consortium of five builders is developing Church Langley on 400 acres of land east of Harlow in Essex. Church Langley should provide 3,500 homes for 8,500 people during the next 10 years, amd the developers involved are Woolwich Homes, Lovell, Countryside and Croudace, with McLean Homes taking a smaller role. In addition to the existing woods, 9 acres of new woodland is being planted. The village will have a country park with football, rugby and cricket pitches.
Properties will range from starter homes priced at £44,000 to £75,000 up to large family homes with three-bedroom detached properties costing around £170,000.
Work should start on the first homes at Peterborough Southern Township in the next few weeks. The £500m development will eventually see a total of 5,200 houses, along with shops, offices, factories, schools and community facilities. It will cover 2,000 acres, which, according to the developer, will make it the largest private-sector new-town project in Britain for 30 years.
More than 1,500 of the homes will be affordable housing provided by housing associations and other bodies. The first 50 homes for North Housing Association will be started soon. This village has been eight years in the planning, with permission finally granted to Peterborough Southern Township, a Hanson subsidiary, last March.
Projects still on the drawing board include Michael Robinson Housing Partnership’s Sedgebrook Village in Northamptonshire, where the developer says that it wants to build a “Prince Charles-style” development. The 510-acre site was partly owned by the Robinson family and the rest has been assembled. The developer has put forward representations to have the village included in the local plan review. “We are about five years behind Prince Charles,” says director Alex Robinson. “It would not throw up the land value that would attract volume housebuilders. There is no speculation value in this village. We are doing it for a place in history, to put a village down for posterity.”
Also hoping that the planners will rule in its favour is British Rail Pension Trustee Co, which has submitted a planning application for a new village at Lethenty near Inverurie in Grampian. BRPT’s agent, Savills, says that the proposal is in line with the Grampian Draft Structure Plan and has been designed and researched during 18 months. The village would have 1,150 houses. Other developments proposed or under way include:
- Chelmer Village built by Countryside;
- Clayton le Woods – 400 homes under construction by Fairclough, Hassall and Wain Homes.
- Acaster Malbis – a development just outside York headed by Shepherd Homes of York and several years down the line.
- Watermead Village in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, where developers inlclude Bryant, S&S, Watermead Co and Bryant. The village was started in the 1980s.
- Maidenbower – a 400-acre scheme near Crawley, West Sussex, which could eventually have 3,600 homes and a population of 10,500. The consortium is made up of Taywood, Wimpey, Bryant Homes and Admiral. Prices start at £43,000 for a one-bedroom flat.
