Government injects £83m into Notts urban extension

Homes England is to spend £83m in a bid to speed up development of a 3,000-home extension to the outskirts of Nottingham.

The housing quango has allocated the money to the Fairham scheme, which it is developing in a joint venture with Clowes Developments, in order to help pay for the £100m of infrastructure works necessary to allow work on the scheme to begin.

Planning permission for the £800m, 606-acre urban extension was granted in 2018, following which Homes England acquired 250 acres of the site in order to work with Clowes as master developer of the scheme.

Clowes last year appointed contractor Winvic to start work on the infrastructure and enabling works on the scheme, which is designed to deliver 1 million ft² of commercial space, a new school, a community centre, a health centre, and sports pitches, alongside the 3,000 homes.

The funding came in part from Homes England’s £1.3bn land assembly fund, which provided £62m, with the rest in the form of a loan from the government’s Home Building Fund.

Housing minister Christopher Pincher said the funding was “fantastic” news for Nottinghamshire and the East Midlands and would give a boost to jobs and the local economy.

Robert Hepwood, land and planning director at Clowes Developments, said the money will allow the firm to accelerate the delivery of new jobs and homes, while Homes England’s interim chief executive Gordon More said: “As the country starts to think about the recovery from the covid-19 pandemic, large projects such as this not only meet a demand for high-quality new homes but also support the housebuilding sector by creating a pipeline of work, providing much-needed stability.”