Last month, the HCA released its Land Development and Disposal Plan, listing 125 sites across the country to be marketed to developers. Read on to find out how we have been accelerating land disposal at Cottam Hall, Preston.
By combining our land expertise and funding programmes, we work alongside developers on sites, helping to get them ready for house building as quickly as possible, by removing many of the risks and challenges.
But how does this work in practice? Cottam Hall, a 150 acre strategic green field site to the north west of Preston’s City Centre, is a good example.
Now owned by the Homes and Communities Agency, the site will create thousands of new homes for the Preston, South Ribble and Lancashire City Deal, alongside leisure facilities, retail and a nature reserve.
The Agency was able to kick start the re-development of the Cottam site in 2012 when it secured outline planning consent for up to 1,100 residential homes and community facilities.
Barratt Homes is currently developing 104 homes at Phase 1 and regional developer Story Homes has just recently started on site with a development of nearly 300 homes at Phase 2. We are also in advanced discussion with a developer for phase 3, which we hope will start building out in 2017.
The development has progressed quickly. By working closely with partners at Preston City Council, Lancashire County Council and Statutory Consultees, we estimate that the HCA has saved developers between 12 and 18 months of time and at least £150,000 on their development costs.
So how did we do this? We worked proactively, dealing in advance with a number of development issues.
If we hadn’t done this, it would have delayed the developers’ ability to get on site and added thousands of pounds onto the cost of each phase of development.
The HCA has worked hard to de-risk each phase of development by;
- Using HCA funding to pay in advance for significant highway infrastructure and improvements to junction 1 of the M55/Broughton Roundabout, this opened up the site for development whilst also removing a Grampian planning condition. This provided certainty to developers.
- Having first secured the outline planning permission we then worked proactively with the Local Planning Authority to discharge specific obligations due under the s106 agreement. By paying upfront costs we reduced the risk to developer and also time in negotiation.
- Securing protected species licences from Natural England, undertaking ecological surveys and creating several Great Crested Newt ponds ahead of development to enable early translocation of newts once development had got underway. This saved 12-18 months on development schedules and associated construction costs
- Providing a full set of technical information to the developer, including ground investigation reports, utility/drainage connections and identifying where upgrades are required. This offered savings of c£50,000.
- Structuring development agreements to benefit from phased payments. This has had a beneficial impact on developer cash flow.
By using our experience of managing large portfolios of land to make appropriate improvements to sites, we can take some of the load off house builders to speed up sale or development.
To read the latest Land Development and Disposal Plan, and see which sites are currently on the market, click here.
If you’d like to find out more Cottam Hall or any other HCA land opportunities in the North West, please contact Stuart Sage, Head of Area for Lancashire & Cumbria at the HCA on stuart.sage@hca.gsi.gov.uk