Hospital site conversion housing investment

A Chartered Institute of Building [CIOB] product story

Edited by the Buildingtalk editorial team Nov 25, 2005

English Partnerships has named Taylor Woodrow under the Bryant Homes brand as preferred developer for 34 hectares of the 55 ha Park Prewett hospital site in Basingstoke.

English Partnerships, which has named Taylor Woodrow under the Bryant Homes brand as preferred developer for 34 hectares of the 55 ha Park Prewett hospital site in Basingstoke, will be devoting another four hectares to building around 130 homes using modern methods of construction.

Park Prewett is one of 96 former hospital sites being brought into the agency's regeneration programme through a GBP320 million transaction between the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Department of Health.

The latest announcement means that more than 1,000 houses will be built at Park Prewett, 884 of them by Bryant Homes and the remainder by one of the winning entrants in the Design for Manufacture competition.

The hospital sites programme now moving to the development stage is expected to accommodate up to 14,000 homes, of which some 40 per cent will be in the affordable and first-time buyer class.

The remaining 29 sites are due to be transferred to English Partnerships as they cease to be of use during the next few years.

Park Prewett, the first to be marketed, is one of the largest residential sites in the current Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council local plan.

It already has detailed planning permission and the development is expected to have a significant impact on housing provision in the area.

Some 100 to 150 of the homes to be built by Bryant will be set aside for people wanting to get onto the first rung of the property ladder under the Government's first-time buyers' initiative.

Up to 200 affordable homes for rent are to be delivered in phase 1 as part of a Section 106 agreement.

The portfolio of former hospital sites, consisting of some 1,600 ha in total, is expected to generate up to GBP1 billion in private sector investment within the next five years.

In addition to new homes, the programme is set to create 80,000 sq.m.of employment space and should see more than 500 ha of brownfield land brought back into productive use.

Taylor Woodrow and English Partnerships expect to sign disposal contracts early in the New Year, to enable work to start on site in May 2006.