City must for homes,
THE city is faced with some difficult decisions over where homes should be built.
The city council has already said it simply does not have enough space within its borders to meet the government target of 39,400 extra homes between 2020 and 2036.
About 18,700 of these have been reallocated to the boroughs and districts. But that still leaves Leicester with almost 21,000 homes which it will need to squeeze in.
The city council is in the process of drawing up a local plan document setting out where developments can be built and on what scale.
As part of the process, possible development sites were submitted to the council, which has a duty to consider them for building.
The authority also has the related problem of a shortage of lower cost and social housing.
In February, it declared a housing crisis, saying there was a “severe lack of truly affordable homes” in the city which is “placing an intolerable burden on people’s finances, health and wellbeing”.
There were 6,053 people on the housing register – almost 1,000 in the highest priority band – as of April 1.
Waiting times for the highest priority applicants for standard homes can range from five months for a one-bedroom home, to nine months for a twobedroom and 10 months for a four or five-bedroom property.
The lowest-priority applicants can
FIVE MAJOR SITES COULD TAKE ABOUT 2,500 HOUSES
find themselves waiting an average of six years for two, three, four and fivebedroom properties.
Housing developments will be expected to include a proportion of affordable housing.
Below are the five biggest proposed development sites in the city.
ASHTON GREEN EAST
A 660-home development could be built on fields alongside the existing Ashton Green development.
The site, to the north of Greengate Lane, could also have a 1,200-capacity secondary school and a public green space.
If the city goes ahead with this site, the estate would stretch from the western edge of the existing development to the former Great Central Railway line to the east.
The woodland on the site would be kept.
LAND NORTH OF THE A46
The urban edge of Leicester could be extended northwards, beyond the A46, with 611 homes suggested for two adjoining sites.
The first would stretch to the village of Thurcaston and the second would butt up against the south-eastern edge of Anstey Lane.
The proposed site would cut into the green wedge to the north of the city, but council documents conclude this loss is outweighed by the development potential of the site.
A gap would be left so Thurcaston would remain separate from the city, plans suggest.
LEICESTER GENERAL HOSPITAL
With the planned transfer of many hospital services from the General to Leicester Royal Infirmary and Glenfield Hospital, the city council has seen an opportunity to redevelop some of the NHS-owned land to create 532 homes.
This would be done in two phases, with the first seeing the rundown and crime-plagued Hospital Close – which once provided homes for hospital staff – regenerated.
Work to bring Hospital Close back up to scratch began at the end of last year.
The second phase includes the majority of the current hospital building.
Most of the site is brownfield land but there is some green space involved.
This would either be retained or recreated elsewhere, documents show. The locally listed buildings would also be kept.
THE FORMER WESTERN GOLF COURSE
One of the more controversial proposed sites in Leicester’s draft local plan is the almost complete overhaul of the former Western Golf Course, which the council has said could accommodate about 466 homes, employment land and gypsy and traveller pitches.
The site has been described as a green oasis by those who are fighting to save it.
However, mayor Sir Peter Soulsby has said the council was under “enormous pressure” to find sites like this one where houses could go.
“I can’t imagine that we could simply say, and that the government and the districts would accept it, that we want to reserve the whole area for green,” he said.
“We need to look very carefully at what’s been said to us and look at how we achieve the difficult balance between meeting the housing targets the government has set and people’s very understandable wish to keep precious green spaces in the city.”
LAND WEST OF ANSTEY LANE
Two further sites are being considered at the edges of the city boundary, with an expected capacity of 325 homes between them.
The first is to the north of Billesdon Close, which is thought to have room for 240 homes.
The remaining 85 homes would go in the Paddock at Glenfield Hospital.
The NHS-owned land is being sold off as it is surplus to requirements – with NHS data suggesting there could be room for about 150 homes.
However, the city council would also be saving room for public open space on the greenfield land.
Council documents also suggest there is room for development beyond its own borders, in land within Charnwood and Blaby districts.
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