Wakefield preps City Fields disposal
The city council is lining up the sale of 30 acres within its urban extension area to Barratt Homes, which will deliver up to 250 homes.
A report that goes before Wakefield’s cabinet on Tuesday 12 November outlines how officers believe a sale at best price to Barratt represents the best use of the land. The 250 homes will include 75 affordable dwellings.
City Fields is a 375-acre urban extension to the east of Wakefield, which sits alongside the existing communities of Stanley, Eastmoor, Agbrigg, Belle Vue and Portobello.
The wider site also includes employment land. Developers with interests include a joint venture between Opus North and Bridges Fund Management, which acquired a 30-acre site from Keyland for a 500,000 sq ft industrial project.
Other developers delivering housing include Miller Homes, Bellway, Countryside, Avant and Redrow. The key landholders are the council, Keyland, Stretton Estates and the City Fields Housing Consortium.
At this point, Wakefield Council owns around 60 acres of developable land, identified in the Local Plan for residential development. New homes here will contribute towards the target for housing growth set out in the local authority’s strategic housing market assessment.
READ MORE: Wakefield okays 500,000 sq ft at City Fields
Over the last four years, Wakefield has been looking to map out ways forward for the various plots across the City Fields holdings, producing plans to maximise the value of the land and securing consents where necessary. Homes England has supported the council with grant funding.
Since 2022, the council has been working with Development Delivery Consultancy on this programme, the partnership having now successfully procured various infrastructure works to make sites developable.
Wakefield’s landholding, for planning purposes, is broken up into separate phases, and the land in question forms phase two under that programme, a site that has full consent for 250 homes, under planning reference 22/02324/FUL.
MPSL Planning & Design worked on the planning application for the land off Neil Fox Way. Of the affordable homes, 30 are proposed as two-bedroom homes and 45 as three-bedroom homes.
The land was offered on the open market through DDC this summer, with 11 firm bids received after initial discussions.
Details of the disposal are restricted at this point.
