Legal & General Homes has acquired a 110-hectare site in Arborfield, Wokingham, Berkshire, with outline planning consent for up to 1,500 homes.
The site is the second major site being brought forward by L&G’s housebuilding arm – it also recently started work on site at its first development, Buckler’s Park, a 102-hectare, 1,000-home development in Crowthorne, also in Berkshire.
L&G Homes announced last year its intention to open a new offsite factory in Leeds with the aim of producing around 3,000 homes a year.
At the new site L&G will develop build-to-sell housing alongside build-to-rent, retirement living, student accommodation and affordable housing. The company says that by using modular construction and its new offsite capabilities it is aiming to produce more than 70,000 new homes over the next five to 10 years.
Construction for the first phase of new homes is due to start at the end of next year. The scheme will provide a full range of housing options, from one-bed apartments to five-bed detached family homes. Over a third of the development will accommodate affordable housing.
James Lidgate, chief executive of Legal & General Homes, said: “We have a chronic housing shortage in the UK and speeding up the delivery of new supply is key to tackling this crisis.
“Adopting a multi-tenure approach means that we can create homes in a much shorter timescale as well as supporting people throughout their different life stages. Rather than taking 15 years to build 1500 new homes, we believe that we could achieve a 50% improvement in delivery.”
