A virtual Basingstoke and Deane planning committee held yesterday resolved to grant planning permission for up to 3,520 homes together with a 250- acre country park at Manydown as a new extension to Basingstoke in Hampshire
Joint venture arrangements between Hampshire County Council, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, Urban&Civic and The Wellcome Trust will be completed shortly.
Virtual planning committees are now operating efficiently for many local authorities. The experience for Urban&Civic has been especially positive with subsidiary Catesby having achieved four approvals aggregating more than 1100 new homes with a 100 per cent success rate in the past month.
New house reservations are also currently exceeding the lowered expectations expressed with the March 2020 interim results, possibly on account of an increased interest brought about by the Covid 19 lockdown in well planned new communities within walking distance of schools and with guaranteed access to exceptional greenspaces.
Net reservations at Urban&Civic’s five operational sites total 98 across the 20 housebuilders that have been undertaking staggered re-openings over the last five weeks. The average level of reservations across all sites during June amounted to the equivalent of one per week for each housebuilder. This is substantially higher than reported industry levels.
The raising of the stamp duty threshold to £500,000 until 31st March 2021 announced by the Chancellor yesterday is likely to accelerate housing starts by the housebuilders working on Urban&Civic sites.