Hounsome Fields, Basingstoke

Home Projects Hounsome Fields, Basingstoke

Project at a glance

Excellence in planning and partnership:

Sector-leading delivery of new homes

Land and planning were secured very quickly on this highly sustainable scheme, south-west of Basingstoke. It followed our previous success with ‘Kennel Farm’: a residential development north of this site, in Basingstoke.

Key success factors here included effective partnership-working, shared commitment, and having the right team in place. The LPA were well-resourced, and equally committed to delivering new homes.

This was a landscape-led development, with the site design including green corridors running east to west to provide important habitat for wildlife; cycle and pedestrian improvements; and extensive open, woodland and recreational space, with 20m woodland buyers to protect valuable beech and pine trees.

This development also provided more than £15m of much-needed public facilities.

Benefits for people and planet:

  • 42 acres of open space, incl. play park areas and community allotments
  • Primary School, Retail Units, Community Centre and Indoor Sports Facilities.
  • Two Gypsy and Traveller pitches.
  • Significant new roundabout and £1.9m of improvements for the A30, (to unlock other Local Plan allocations).

Reimagining places for people to thrive

Collaborative working:

It’s in our DNA

We believe that bringing stakeholders together to share ambitions and ideas is the best way to shape future communities and truly create sustainable places for today and tomorrow.

The masterplanning of Hounsome Fields, (by Lichfields), incorporated flexibility for future growth of Basingstoke, towards Manydown. It addressed the countryside setting of the southwestern approach to Basingstoke and the site’s topography and woodlands, alongside the need to deliver housing, community, leisure facilities, and open spaces.

The thoughtful design was intended to deliver the Council’s vision for south-west Basingstoke, and helped ensure planning permission was granted.

Timeline:

2015: Site acquired: Entered into a Promotion Agreement with the landowner.

2015 – 2017: Strategic planning promotion and extensive public consultation undertaken.

Dec. 2016: Planning Application submitted.

Sept. 2017: Planning permission secured. (Allocation in Local Plan).

The site was sold into a JV partnership with Linden Homes, (part of Vistry Group), in December 2017.

2018: Construction work began on site. In October, the first homeowners moved in.

“The woodlands within and around the site created a strong green framework in which to develop a distinctive new place, surrounded by clusters of housing to create smaller communities. Challenges included the need to incorporate a protected area for a major link road. We were very pleased with the positive reaction of both the client and council to our design.””

Nick Thompson, Senior Director, Lichfields

Find out more about our track record of success.

Please contact us at: land@wates.co.uk

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