Vistry lands 171-unit Homes England scheme

Homes England has picked Vistry Partnerships to deliver a 171-home development on a canalside site at Littleborough in Greater Manchester.

The project, which will start on site early next year, adds to the regeneration specialist’s 19-strong list of projects for the government’s housing-delivery accelerator – expected to result in more than 4,000 new homes.

Vistry, which was formed at the start of last year from the merger of Bovis Homes with Galliford Try’s Linden Homes, said the Yorkshire arm of its partnerships business would deliver the Littleborough scheme – won through Homes England’s Delivery Partner Panel.

Vistry said the scheme would deliver a “high quality, mixed tenure development” and that homes would be sold under the Linden brand.

Andrew Poyner, who is managing director of Vistry Partnerships Yorkshire, said the contract was the division’s first secured through the Delivery Partner Panel.

However, Homes England this week revealed some details of its planned replacement of the Delivery Partner Panel with a new “dynamic purchasing system”. Homes England chief land and development officer Stephen Kinsella told Housing Today the new system would be up and running by September.

Homes England’s predecessor body the Homes and Communities Agency bought the site of the former Akzo Nobel chemical factory at Littleborough in 2017, after earlier attempts to redevelop it failed.

The news comes as Vistry also announced it had exchanged contracts for a new site consisting of 252 homes in Wymondham, Norfolk.

The firm said the site had been acquired in partnership with Taylor Wimpey on a 50:50 basis. Vistry said the properties it delivered would range in size from two to five bedrooms and would be sold under the Bovis brand.

It said 213 homes would be for private sale and 39 built as affordable housing.

Vistry said the site already had outline planning permission and construction was due to start this summer.