Legal and General secures second new build site for 1,500 homes

It is the second development location for its housebuilding arm, Legal & General Homes.

The financial services giant said it would be applying a multi-tenure approach to the properties built at the Arborfield site in Wokingham, including build to sell, build to rent, later living, student accommodation and affordable housing.

A school, shops and employment generating uses are also included in the plans and L&G suggested the tenure split could result in halving the typical 15-year timescale.

Affordable housing

While Legal & General is able to deliver the buildings through its modular homes construction plant, it has not yet decided how it will complete this development.

More than a third of the development will accommodate affordable housing, with more than 44% of the total site dedicated to public open space.

Construction for the first phase of new homes is due to start at the end of next year and the site is large enough to provide a full range of housing options, from one bed apartments to five bed detached family homes.

50% faster

Legal & General Homes CEO James Lidgate (pictured) 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 1,500 new homes, we believe that we could achieve a 50% improvement in delivery,” he added.

Legal & General CEO Nigel Wilson added that the business would be accelerating the roll-out of housing and associated infrastructure.

“The Budget creates the right backdrop for a real boost to one of the key areas of infrastructure – housing supply. This is the first substantive supply side policy for almost forty years, since council houses were sold in the 1980s,” he said.