Homes England has acquired Panshanger Aerodrome in Welwyn Garden City to bring forward one of the region’s largest housing developments, with a gross development value of £250m.
The government’s housing accelerator has acquired 93 acres on the eastern part of the aerodrome from Mariposa Investments, adding to the 15 acres it already owned to the west.
Consolidated ownership will allow Homes England to drive forward development of 650 homes, of which 30% will be affordable, a new primary school, a community centre and self-build plots.
The site was previously used as a decoy site for the De Havilland aviation factory in Hatfield during World War II. It was later used as a civic airfield for light aircraft.
It received outline planning consent from Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council last year. It is the only strategic land site outside the green belt, with capacity for a significant number of homes in an area of high affordability pressure.
Homes England’s chief land and development officer, Stephen Kinsella, said: “Being in control of the whole site will ensure that we can deliver the site comprehensively and much more quickly.
“We are delivering an infrastructure project and we will be able to market multiple parcels to different housebuilders to accelerate production of the site.”
Homes England will work to build a road and other necessary infrastructure to speed up delivery. It will simultaneously market the first phase to housebuilders, and said there will be an obligation to provide parcels to small builders.
Kinsella said: “We will have policy objectives of modern methods of construction and affordable housing, as well as building a great scheme with all the facilities as well as homes.”
Long-term vision
The deal was one of five major land acquisitions completed on 31 March, as Homes England raced to complete its year end, against a backdrop of the coronavirus crisis.
“Short-term disruption in the market is not a material factor in the acquisitions of these sites,” said Kinsella. “These are large strategic sites that will deliver over the long-term.”
While other operations such as public consultation, site investigation and construction have slowed due to social distancing measures, Kinsella said the agency is focused to parcel up land to ramp housing delivery after the crisis.
“Our job is to create a pipeline of shovel-ready development sites, so we can continue to work, while the situation with Covid-19 is taking place around us,” he said.
“Land is a huge constraint for delivering the numbers we need to try to fix the housing crisis. The space for Homes England’s development business is to acquire difficult sites, which the market can’t and move it to production.”
Chief executive Nick Walkley has also stressed the importance that the agency “presses on” with development, to support small and medium builders in its role as master developer.
Last year, Homes England revealed plans to beef up its land and development function with a goal to hire 150 professionals on top of a team of 300. The team is tasked with driving land acquisitions to hit an annual target of delivering 10,000 homes.
To send feedback, e-mail emma.rosser@egi.co.uk or tweet @EmmaARosser or @estatesgazette
