Member Article

Residential housing boost for North West consultancy

Preston and Chester-based architectural, building surveying and town planning consultancy, Cassidy + Ashton, has reached a landmark milestone in the residential housing sector with current instructions now amounting to more than 4,000 dwellings.

With specialist planning and masterplanning capabilities, the practice has been appointed to act in respect of a variety of residential schemes, ranging from large-scale urban extensions in the North West and North Wales to smaller brownfield schemes across the UK.

The largest of these is the 1,500 dwelling Whyndyke Farm scheme on the periphery of Blackpool which it is hoped will be granted approval later this year.

“With mortgage approvals rising and government initiatives like Help to Buy fuelling demand in the market, there’s a requirement for lots of new stock.

“Allied with this we are seeing renewed investment from landowners and house builders keen to achieve residential consents,” said Guy Evans, chartered town planner and associate at Cassidy + Ashton.

“With the Government’s ‘simplification’ of the planning system making most of the headlines, our experience paints somewhat of a different picture.

“The lack of up-to-date Local Plans and pressure on Council’s to exhibit a 5-year housing land supply, is leading to an ever-more complex position against which applications are determined.”

“It’s really positive to see the new-build market moving in the right direction and this, combined with increased optimism around planning applications, has led to a busy first half of the year, which we hope will continue into the coming months.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .