Planning & Development Bulletin - Feb 2020

Our experts have recently secured planning permission, on behalf of Buccleuch Property, for the redevelopment of an existing industrial site on Nestles Avenue, Hayes, West London, in the London Borough of Hillingdon, immediately adjacent to the new Crossrail station at Hayes & Harlington.

The existing site, comprising of a series of low-rise warehouse buildings, associated sheds and ancillary development, will be replaced with a new residential led mixed-use scheme, comprising of 457 new homes, of which 30% are affordable. The site will also feature flexible B1 workspace, retail and café uses, alongside amenity areas and car parking.

The site falls within the GLA’s Hayes Housing Zone and Heathrow Opportunity Area, with the region north of Nestles Avenue extending to around 40 acres earmarked for redevelopment to form a new mixed-use neighbourhood.  This involved working with neighbouring landowners as part of a comprehensive masterplan for the development of the new neighbourhood and engagement with a wide range of stakeholders, including Barratt London, SEGRO, Network Rail, TfL, Access Self Storage and the GLA. Barratt London and SEGRO’s scheme for the redevelopment of the former Nestles Avenue factory site further down the road was approved in December 2017 and is under construction.

Carter Jonas was initially responsible for promoting the site through the Local Plan and then later became responsible for leading the client and design team through the pre-application process, ultimately guiding the submission of a full planning application in April 2018. Our services included planning, development agency and consultancy, including viability advice.  

For further information, please contact a member of our team:

Nick Taylor
Partner, Planning & Development 
020 7016 0733

Carter Jonas were recently successful in gaining planning permission for the demolition of a traditional detached house on Woodstock Road, Oxford. Its replacement will be an overtly contemporary residential apartment building, which is locally contentious in its design.

Aside from the aesthetic, there were concerns around providing a more efficient use for the site, in proposing a net gain of six residential buildings out of the available site in a three-storey building. This included creating three x 2-bed, two x 3-bed and two x 1-bed flats, with the provision of private amenity space, car parking, bin and cycle storage. With new housing in dwindling in supply in this area and land a finite resource, Oxford being constrained by surrounding Green Belt land and large areas of flood plain, the local authority was welcoming of the principle of additional residential development.

The process of constant dialogue was maintained through from the initial pre-application stage and on through the formal planning application stage, to the point where the planning officers were content to recommend the application for permission to the planning committee. 

Members of the committee resolved to approve the application on the basis that they accepted the design merits of the proposal. 

Huw Mellor
Partner, Planning & Development
01865 255166
Huw.Mellor@carterjonas.co.uk

Our northern development team has agreed to sell a residential development site at Aldborough Gate, Boroughbridge. 

Acting on behalf of the landowner, our team initially agreed terms for an Option Agreement in 2015 with national house builder, Taylor Wimpey. Taylor Wimpey have been pursuing full planning permission for 184 units on the site which was granted in 2019. The development team then successfully negotiated the sale price following receipt of planning permission and Taylor Wimpey have now commenced construction. The site is located to the southern end of Boroughbridge, benefitting from good transport links with Junction 48 of the A1M only 0.5 miles away, providing easy access to Harrogate, York and Leeds.

John Webster 
Partner, Planning & Development
0113 203 1063
John.Webster@carterjonas.co.uk

Our experts were instructed in the spring 2019 by De Bene Esse and the Abbey Group, promoters for a residential development opportunity on behalf of a consortium of landowners.

The site extended to approximately 4.6 hectares. To the rear of the property residents will benefit from the view of open fields.

An outline planning consent was secured in May 2018 for up to 45 dwellings, including a 40% affordable housing allocation. A full national marketing campaign was undertaken, and serious interest was received from a wide range of companies including housebuilding plc’s, regional developers, local developers and affordable housing providers.

Bids were invited by informal tender and 12 bids were received; the vast majority exceeded the guide price of offers in excess of £2,500,000. Parties had been invited to offer a planning overage on the basis that the number of consented units was low for the site area. 

Three of the developers were invited to post bid interviews. Cross Keys Homes, who was the highest bidder, decided to submit their offer to take account of potential planning gain and therefore were not offering overage. Terms were successfully agreed with Cross Keys Homes in the summer 2019, with the agreed price of £3,686,463.

There were a number of legal and technical issues that needed to be resolved and Carter Jonas acted collaboratively with the purchaser, promoters and solicitors throughout the post tender process to find satisfactory conclusions. Simultaneous exchange and completion took place in January 2020.

Mark Hanson, director of development at Cross Key Homes, outlines how Carter Jonas dealt with the complex matters involved in the project:

“We found the process of acquiring this site to be more complex than many other sites, however the process was greatly facilitated by the helpful and transparent style of the seller’s agents, Carter Jonas. There were one or two sticky patches, but the positivity and professionalism of the Cambridge team got us through them.”

Nick Muncey
Partner, Planning & Development
01223 326817
Nick.Muncey@carterjonas.co.uk