‘More good’ will come of land sale for homes in Warwick district

A consortium of the King Henry VIII Endowed Trust, Oken Trust and a local family trust are looking to sell non-green belt land for 800 houses.

It is part of the need to provide land for housing in Warwick District Council’s Local Plan.

Areas south of Warwick and Leamington and by Whitnash will see 4,550 homes built.

Land has been earmarked for 6,622 homes, which is on top of the existing forecast of space and known applications providing 5,231 homes.

Both figures are part of the Local Plan’s projection of 11,853 homes needed by 2029.

The trustees said if successful, all profits from the sale of the charity-owned land (about 85 per cent of the site) would be ploughed back into the Warwick community.

The Henry VIII trust gives more than £1 million a year to schools, churches and deserving projects in Warwick; and Oken Trust maintains Warwick’s almshouses and makes grants to Warwick Hospital, Myton Hospice and Warwick Apprenticing charities.

The consortium’s land is one of several sites being considered in the emerging Local Plan.

John Edwards, chairman of the consortium and deputy chairman of the Henry VIII trust, said: “For any development to be both acceptable and successful we recognise that it needs to be high quality and sensitively planned.

“Our outline planning permission integrates the proposed development with its surroundings so that it will be a natural extension to Myton, offering opportunities to both new and existing residents.

“We also envisage a primary school, a neighbourhood centre and a range of extensive, ecologically-friendly open spaces.”

He said most of Henry VIII trust’s existing assets came from the sale of land for the Leamington Shopping Park and houses off Saumur Way.

“We think that this has been of great benefit to Warwick and that selling land at Europa Way will further increase the money given to Warwick and will be for the benefit of future generations.”