Team Working Directly With Landowners To Meet Regional Housing Needs
Since unveiling plans to extend its services to landowners across the North of England, Keyland Developments, the sister company to Yorkshire Water and a subsidiary of the Kelda Group, has announced that it has entered into its first two agreements, which are set to make a significant contribution to West Yorkshire’s housing needs.
Keyland has been regenerating Yorkshire Water’s redundant sites for over 20 years and has built an unrivalled reputation on its core strength of resolving highly complex development issues to maximise the value of brownfield and greenfield sites. Recognising the contribution the Company could make to unlocking the regional land supply, Keyland took the decision to offer its services to other landowners in the North of England.
The Planning Promotional Agreements (PPA’s) involve Keyland working with independent landowners, corporates or regulated bodies to overcome obstacles to development on strategic sites in order to facilitate regeneration by securing planning consent for future use. Since announcing its new direction at the end of last year, the team has been exploring a range of commercial and residential opportunities.
Keyland’s first PPA’s have just been agreed and involve two separate sites in West Yorkshire, which have a combined 21 acres of land identified by Keyland as prime for residential allocation. The sites could bring about the development of some 240 new homes. Project teams of professionals are now being assembled to work closely with the Local Planning Authorities in securing housing allocations, with a view to the sites being brought to market in 2019.
Peter Garrett, Managing Director of Keyland Developments Ltd, said; “There are a significant number of strategic sites across the Yorkshire region that haven’t fulfilled their potential, often due to the complexities of the planning system, title issues, or problems with access or ground conditions, which can all create barriers to development.
“Many of the region’s local authorities are facing severe long-term housing shortages as supply is simply not meeting the growing demand. The new agreements we have entered into in West Yorkshire will enable the landowners to derive the maximum potential from their sites with no financial risk, whilst unlocking much-needed land to assist the local authorities in meeting their long-term housing needs.”
Keyland is a major landowner in its own right with an active development pipeline. The team owns some 1100 acres outright with a further 900 acres in Joint Venture partnerships, as well as a residential development pipeline of over 6000 units and over 6m sq ft of pipeline commercial space.
The team recently assembled a project team to prepare a planning application for a new employment scheme on its 53 acre Wakefield East site which could incorporate some 700,000 sq ft of employment space and bring about the creation of some 1400 new jobs.
