St Georges, Telford

The Opportunity

The aim was to promote the site for residential development and secure planning permission in a way that would maximise land value while remaining deliverable.

A number of key challenges needed to be addressed:

• Homes England overage: a 21-year overage arrangement affecting the title and ultimately the value of the site
• Medieval moat: archaeological sensitivity on site, including a former medieval moat
• Biodiversity Net Gain: BNG requirements needing to be addressed as part of the planning strategy
• Drainage constraints: drainage and other on-site technical constraints
• Utility network capacity: limited capacity within the local utility network
• A5 access: the need to achieve safe and viable access from the A5

The approach required careful coordination between planning, technical and commercial inputs to ensure the scheme remained viable.

Our Approach

From the outset, the project required more than a standard planning approach. The site had clear residential potential, but unlocking that value meant resolving a number of planning, legal, technical and infrastructure constraints in parallel.

Early work focused on building the strategy around the site. This included engagement with the Local Planning Authority, discussions with Homes England in relation to the overage, and initial consultation with the local community. We also worked closely with the landowner on tax planning and carried out feasibility work to establish what the site could realistically and commercially support.

As the project moved forward, we coordinated the full technical workstream, including ecology, Biodiversity Net Gain, drainage, flood risk, archaeology, ground conditions and other key reports. This gave us a clear understanding of the site constraints and allowed the scheme to be shaped around both technical deliverability and market value.

One of the most important parts of the strategy was access. Working with specialist highways consultants, we developed a solution for a new signalised junction directly onto the A5, which became critical to making the development viable and deliverable.

In parallel, we engaged with utility providers, including Severn Trent, to address network capacity and ensure the site could be properly serviced for residential development.

The Outcome

The project successfully transformed a constrained greenfield site into a credible and deliverable residential development opportunity.

Through the planning and promotion process, a number of interconnected legal, technical and infrastructure matters were resolved, allowing the site to progress from a strategic land opportunity into a consented scheme capable of being delivered to the market.

Importantly, the scheme was shaped not only to secure planning consent, but to be genuinely deliverable for a housebuilder. This meant balancing planning requirements with commercial viability, buildability and market appeal, helping ensure the site could progress into construction and achieve maximum value for the site.

Key outcomes included:

• Residential development opportunity created: 10-acre site repositioned from constrained land into a deliverable housing scheme
• Planning consent secured: outline permission achieved for 89 dwellings
• Access unlocked: new signalised junction secured directly onto Telford Way / the A5
• Legal complexity navigated: Homes England overage re-negotiated and title considerations managed as part of the promotion strategy
• Exit achieved: scheme progressed to agreement with a regional housebuilder
• Value maximised: completed scheme carried a gross development value in excess of £21 million

Summary

The site had clear residential potential, but it was not a simple planning exercise. Value could only be unlocked by resolving the Homes England overage, securing a viable access strategy onto the A5, addressing archaeological, drainage and utility constraints, and creating a scheme that was attractive to both the planning authority and future housebuilders.

A key part of the strategy was making sure the right issues were dealt with at the right time. Legal, technical, planning and commercial matters all needed to be considered together, so that decisions made early in the process did not create problems later or weaken the value of the site.

By applying a clear, practical development strategy from the outset, the site was repositioned from a constrained landholding into a credible residential development opportunity, capable of securing consent, attracting housebuilder interest and progressing towards construction.