The 400-acre mixed-use Branston Locks scheme is one of the first large-scale urban extensions to be delivered in the UK. When complete, the sustainable new community will offer 2500 homes alongside one million sq ft of commercial space. The former agricultural land is being transformed to include extensive green infrastructure encompassing a 70-acre hillside park and leisure corridors with open spaces for sports and recreation facilities managed by the Lands Trust. Development of a new secondary free school has been completed and a primary school, and village centre including provision for the elderly is also planned.
When we identified the opportunity and acquired the land, the Local Planning Authority was not considering it for development but had applied for Growth Point Status as the town had a desire to grow and change. We promoted the site successfully. Once it had a draft allocation for development, we brought in a 50:50 equity partner. We secured outline planning consent in 2015. We now act as master developer to ensure a positive long-term legacy is delivered for the community and are already partnering with four developers to create over 900 new homes. We intend to directly develop out the commercial element, known as Quintus, ourselves, and have recently agreed a funding package with a US based investor to create 235,000 sq ft of industrial & house buildings in three units
