This 30 acre greenfield site is located adjacent to Meir, to the south of Stoke-on-Trent. In February 2018, The Strategic Land Group successfully secured outline planning permission for 350 new homes. The site was then sold in two phases - a first phase of 169 homes to Persimmon in January 2021 and a second phase of 181 homes to Bellway in October 2021.
A number of previous attempts at securing a residential planning consent on the site had failed before we agreed to work with the landowners during 2016. At that time, the supply of new homes in the city was heavily dependent on brownfield sites, many of which were unviable. As a result, it was our view that the council were unable to demonstrate that they had enough deliverable housing land to meet their needs for the next five years - the minimum required by national policy. Where that is the case, the "tilted balance" comes into effect which allows less weight to be given to some local planning policies when applications are decided. Based on that analysis, we submitted a planning application in January 2017.
We worked hard to ensure that the proposed scheme was of a high quality. The masterplan included a significant new area of open space, a number of green corridors crossing the site, extensive landscape buffers to the countryside beyond and a wide, tree-lined boulevard running through the centre of the site. Together, these features produced a distinctive, green leafy character and provided a firm foundation for a high quality development of which Stoke could be proud.
This approach proved very successful with one local councillor commenting that: "It's nice to see a developer come forward with such a quality proposal in the city. I think this project has got some real legs in making a proper small community."
As with any planning application, it wasn't all plain sailing. The main difficulty related to the traffic impacts of the development, which would be served via a single point of access. Detailed highway modelling showed that, with the inclusion of an emergency access route and some off-site highways improvements, the development's impact on what was already a congested local road network would be acceptable.
After just over 12 months of negotiations, the planning application was eventually approved.
This 30 acre greenfield site is located adjacent to Meir, to the south of Stoke-on-Trent. In February 2018, The Strategic Land Group successfully secured outline planning permission for 350 new homes. The site was then sold in two phases - a first phase of 169 homes to Persimmon in January 2021 and a second phase of 181 homes to Bellway in October 2021.
A number of previous attempts at securing a residential planning consent on the site had failed before we agreed to work with the landowners during 2016. At that time, the supply of new homes in the city was heavily dependent on brownfield sites, many of which were unviable. As a result, it was our view that the council were unable to demonstrate that they had enough deliverable housing land to meet their needs for the next five years - the minimum required by national policy. Where that is the case, the "tilted balance" comes into effect which allows less weight to be given to some local planning policies when applications are decided. Based on that analysis, we submitted a planning application in January 2017.
We worked hard to ensure that the proposed scheme was of a high quality. The masterplan included a significant new area of open space, a number of green corridors crossing the site, extensive landscape buffers to the countryside beyond and a wide, tree-lined boulevard running through the centre of the site. Together, these features produced a distinctive, green leafy character and provided a firm foundation for a high quality development of which Stoke could be proud.
This approach proved very successful with one local councillor commenting that: "It's nice to see a developer come forward with such a quality proposal in the city. I think this project has got some real legs in making a proper small community."
As with any planning application, it wasn't all plain sailing. The main difficulty related to the traffic impacts of the development, which would be served via a single point of access. Detailed highway modelling showed that, with the inclusion of an emergency access route and some off-site highways improvements, the development's impact on what was already a congested local road network would be acceptable.
After just over 12 months of negotiations, the planning application was eventually approved.
This 30 acre greenfield site is located adjacent to Meir, to the south of Stoke-on-Trent. In February 2018, The Strategic Land Group successfully secured outline planning permission for 350 new homes. The site was then sold in two phases - a first phase of 169 homes to Persimmon in January 2021 and a second phase of 181 homes to Bellway in October 2021.
A number of previous attempts at securing a residential planning consent on the site had failed before we agreed to work with the landowners during 2016. At that time, the supply of new homes in the city was heavily dependent on brownfield sites, many of which were unviable. As a result, it was our view that the council were unable to demonstrate that they had enough deliverable housing land to meet their needs for the next five years - the minimum required by national policy. Where that is the case, the "tilted balance" comes into effect which allows less weight to be given to some local planning policies when applications are decided. Based on that analysis, we submitted a planning application in January 2017.
We worked hard to ensure that the proposed scheme was of a high quality. The masterplan included a significant new area of open space, a number of green corridors crossing the site, extensive landscape buffers to the countryside beyond and a wide, tree-lined boulevard running through the centre of the site. Together, these features produced a distinctive, green leafy character and provided a firm foundation for a high quality development of which Stoke could be proud.
This approach proved very successful with one local councillor commenting that: "It's nice to see a developer come forward with such a quality proposal in the city. I think this project has got some real legs in making a proper small community."
As with any planning application, it wasn't all plain sailing. The main difficulty related to the traffic impacts of the development, which would be served via a single point of access. Detailed highway modelling showed that, with the inclusion of an emergency access route and some off-site highways improvements, the development's impact on what was already a congested local road network would be acceptable.
After just over 12 months of negotiations, the planning application was eventually approved.
At 350 homes, the scale of the site was such that very few developers would be able to buy it all. They would also look to phase their land payments over a period of time, delaying the receipt of funds by the landowner. We therefore opted to divide the site into two roughly equal phases before it was marketed for sale. In partitioning the site we ensured that a large parcel of land next to the access was reserved for Phase 2. This allowed the developer of that parcel to have a visible sales presence and avoiding the impression that they were just an afterthought to someone else's development. In doing so, we prevented the value of Phase 2 being impaired as a result of any perceived "second class status" for those homes.
Planning is only part of the story when it comes to maximising the value of a development site. To ensure developers could pay as much as possible, we commissioned an extensive ground investigation report allowing interested parties to accurately confirm foundation costings. During the course of the project, we also worked with Western Power to secure the diversion of some electric powerlines that crossed the site for no cost by following a protracted legal process which developers don't usually have time for.
Following a competitive bidding process, we agreed to sell the first phase of the site to Persimmon in July 2019. This sale was conditional upon them securing their own reserved matters planning permission, setting out precisely what the housing layout will look like. This is the most common way that development sites are sold as it allows house builders to minimise their risk and therefore increases what they are prepared to pay for a site. After a number of pandemic-induced delays to the planning process, they finally completed the purchase of the site in January 2021.
As soon as that first Phase was sold, the second Phase was released to the market. There was very strong interest in the site and we ultimately accepted an offer from Bellway Homes which - unusually - was entirely unconditional. They would take the site "as is" and deal with the final planning approvals at their own risk - dramatically increasing the speed at which they could buy the land. The sale of this final phase completed in October 2021.
The landowners were delighted with the result we delivered for them. As their agent put it: "You had faith in the site when many others didn't so our success is down to you. Credit where it's due."
We're always on the look out for new sites - whether in Stoke or elsewhere - where we can deliver planning permission for the landowners at our own cost and risk. If you know of a site that might be suitable, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
