Vistry signs two partnership deals with Homes England

Homes England has appointed Vistry Group to lead the regeneration of Birmingham City Hospital and a site in Hardingstone, Northamptonshire.

Birmingham City Hospital has been granted outline planning permission for the delivery of 750 homes, while the site in Northamptonshire will see the group build 250 new homes on land formerly owned by Homes England.

Of the 750 homes delivered at the Birmingham City Hospital site, 50% will be affordable or private-rent tenures, and the remaining will be for market sale.

The scheme will retain the infirmary building frontage, and will be converted into residential accommodation. City Hospital services will be transferred to the new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital later this year.

That hospital job is set to be delivered this year, six years late, having been caught up in the collapse of Carillion.

To bring the site forward for development, Vistry has worked closely with Birmingham City Council and Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust.

The majority of the 1,000 new homes will be constructed using modern methods of construction, with timber frame panels produced at the Vistry Works factory in Bardon, Leicestershire.

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Vistry has said that this will increase the speed of the construction process and improve sustainability.

According to Vistry, each home built using these panels emits 14,460kg CO2e less than a traditional brick-and-block house.

In September last year, Vistry announced that following a review of the group’s strategy in the wake of its £1.1bn merger with Countryside in 2022, it would focus its entire business on partnerships.

Vistry said the re-organisation would drive £25m in cost savings, over and above the £60m in efficiencies it said had already been derived from the Countryside purchase.

Partnerships housing is the name given to a development model under which developers work with housing associations, local authorities, and investors in private rented housing to bring forward developments which tend to have a much lower proportion of homes for private sale than would be expected from traditional developers.

Vistry has delivered improved revenue and pre-tax profit as it continues its transition to a partnerships-focused business.

Greg Fitzgerald, chief executive of Vistry Group, said of today’s announcement: “These deals further evidence the benefit of our long-term strategic partnership with Homes England, enabling the Group to deliver a significant number of mixed tenure homes in the Midlands. Furthermore, the unique capabilities of Vistry Works will allow us to utilise timber frame manufacturing at scale across both sites, speeding up housing delivery whilst reducing carbon emissions.”

In its results for the year to 31 December 2023, Vistry posted revenue of £3.56bn, up 28.6% on £2.77bn the year prior.