Up to 3,500 new homes are to be built in Basingstoke, Hampshire.

Urban&Civic has been appointed as Master Developer to deliver the project at Manydown, a planned exemplar strategic extension to Basingstoke.

In addition to the new homes, the development will include local businesses, retail and community facilities, two new primary schools, land for a secondary school and a 250-acre new country park.

The scheme will be delivered in partnership with the Wellcome Trust, Basingstoke and Deane Borough and Hampshire County Councils. Both councils are joint leasehold owners of 794 acres allocated for residential development immediately to the west of Basingstoke.

A outline planning application for the scheme was submitted by the councils in March last year. The expectation is that Urban&Civic, with Wellcome, will commit to drawdown the land, in partnership with the Councils, conditional upon outline planning being obtained.


An additional 1,230 acres is also under the leasehold development ownership of the councils and has been submitted under a 'call for sites' for consideration under the revised Strategic Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment. This submissions plans for a further 7,000 new homes on land which currently remains outside the scope of the existing agreement.

Leader of Hampshire County Council, Cllr Roy Perry, said: "This announcement marks the next exciting step in the Manydown project.  Urban&Civic's wealth of expertise and experience will ensure that our vision for creating a development at Manydown with robust infrastructure, including high quality schools, housing and amenities, is the best it can be.

"Manydown will be a flourishing community, in which people can step onto the housing ladder, grow their families and thrive in all aspects of their lives."

Chief Executive of Urban&Civic, Nigel Hugill, said: "Manydown will reinforce Basingstoke by building on existing strengths. Our selection against really tough competition demonstrates the increasing scalability of the Master Developer approach in meeting housing numbers on strategic projects across South East England. Wellcome is a wonderful addition to our list of allies."

(LM)