On site work on the £117 million Campbell Wharf development in Milton Keynes has commenced. The residential-led mixed use scheme includes 383 new homes, a narrowboat marina, public house, nursery and a mix of retail units and is set to transform and revitalise a much-underutilised part of Central Milton Keynes.
Design plans for a four star luxury, boutique hotel in Milton Keynes are now underway, following successful planning permission. The 250-bed hotel will be located on Marlborough Gate and it will include conference and meeting room services, a gym, spa and pool facilities, as well as a rooftop restaurant that
Now that finding solutions to the UK housing crisis is a top government priority, property consultants Bidwells take a look at the new targets and ask if a standardised approach to house building can work in each region of the Golden Triangle. The corridor connecting Cambridge, Milton Keynes, and Oxford
BDC 319 : Aug 2024
On site work on the £117 million Campbell Wharf development in Milton Keynes has commenced. The residential-led mixed use scheme includes 383 new homes, a narrowboat marina, public house, nursery and a mix of retail units and is set to transform and revitalise a much-underutilised part of Central Milton Keynes. Once it approaches completion, the development will deliver 332 one and two-bedroom apartments and 51 three, four and five-bedroom houses. Moreover, 30% of the properties on site have been reserved for shared ownership and affordable housing, in order to meet local housing needs in the community. “We are pleased to have cemented our agreement with the Milton Keynes Development Partnership and look forward to working together on this significant development. Once complete the scheme will provide a new gateway from the Canal to Central Milton Keynes and deliver much needed new homes to the area,” said Scott Black, Managing Director at Crest Nicholson. Located on the eastern edge of Central Milton Keynes with easy access to both Milton Keynes Central Station and the M1, the site is divided into two distinct areas by the Grand Union Canal. The 8.15 ha site will also include a new marina on the Grand Union Canal, providing 111 berths, a canal-side pub, café, restaurant and a new footbridge linking the two sides of the canal. “As our city continues to grow, MKDP is committed to playing its part in helping to create well-designed, vibrant & affordable new communities in partnership with a range of local developers. As part of the Campbell Wharf development, MKDP and the developer Crest Nicholson will be creating 115 affordable new homes, a new 111 berth marina alongside the city’s renowned Grand Union Canal, and importantly, will be contributing towards the cost of upgrading the infrastructure of our city centre,” commented Councillor Rob Middleton, Cabinet Member responsible for Resources and Innovation. The new marina is expected to open in April 2019, while the first residential dwellings on site will be occupied in October 2019. The development is expected to be fully completed by 2023.
Design plans for a four star luxury, boutique hotel in Milton Keynes are now underway, following successful planning permission. The 250-bed hotel will be located on Marlborough Gate and it will include conference and meeting room services, a gym, spa and pool facilities, as well as a rooftop restaurant that will offer fantastic views over central Milton Keynes. Designed by pHp Architects, the scheme will feature an eye-catching design that will create the illusion of the sun on the east side of the hotel off Midsummer Boulevard. “We are delighted to receive the green light for the Milton Keynes hotel development. Our emphasis is on quality and the entire building design team have certainly delivered above and beyond that in their plans,” said Mark Stuart, managing director at Hotel La Tour, the owners of the development. “Hotel La Tour Milton Keynes will fill a much needed luxury services gap within the area and bring life and connectivity to it. It will also create approximately 200 new jobs as we recruit and develop local talent.” The next stage of design planning has already started for Couch Perry Wilkes (CPW), the engineers providing the mechanical, engineering and plumbing expertise, as well as the BREEAM assessor role. The other companies part of the project are Gleeds, pHp Architects and Scott, White and Hookins Structural & Civil Engineers and Sharps Redmore Acoustics. “We are busy developing client specific solutions to ensure that the guests and staff have the best possible experience when visiting and working in the hotel. We are therefore working with specialist designers for interior design, audio visual, spa specialists and artists working on commissions within the development,” explained Matt Wrate, director at CPW. The cost and project management services for the project are provided by international property and construction consultancy Gleeds.
Now that finding solutions to the UK housing crisis is a top government priority, property consultants Bidwells take a look at the new targets and ask if a standardised approach to house building can work in each region of the Golden Triangle. The corridor connecting Cambridge, Milton Keynes, and Oxford has the potential to become the UK’s very own Silicon Valley, according to a National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) report. What stands in the way of this achievement is the lack of sufficient and suitable housing. To solve this issue, the government outlined the ambitious plan to build one million homes in the corridor by 2050. However, the housing markets and the approaches to housing delivery by each local authority along the corridor vary greatly. Cambridge and Oxford have two of the most in demand but least affordable housing markets in the UK, while Milton Keynes has become the fastest growing city in the UK, but it has very little land designated as green belt land. On the other hand, Cambridge and Oxford are surrounded by a green belt, which means that more creative, sustainable ways of meeting the housing need in these cities must be explored. The corridor, which stretches north and west of the Golden Triangle, incorporates around 3.3 million people, but the housing shortage is a national issue that government is trying to solve with its proposed approach to standardise the methodology used for calculating housing targets. “The standard approach is too simple and ignores fundamental variables that influence local housing markets, including geographical factors. The proposed approach might actually worsen regional disparities and slow down delivery,” said Divisional Managing Partner of Planning, David Bainbridge. If not addressed and planned for adequately, the need for investment in infrastructure, both for housing and transport, risks restricting the growth of Milton Keynes, Oxford, and Cambridge. The large pool of talent and businesses that stem from, and flock to, the Golden Triangle may also begin to reconsider the attractiveness of these locations compared to other competitive areas in the UK.
