Work on 1,000-home site will begin with the building of about 260 homes in village near Leamington

The green light has been given for first phase of new 1,000-home site near Upper Lighthorne.

Countryside Partnerships, working together with Homes England, has finalised the purchase of land for a development of 259 homes to be known as Windmill View, and has secured planning permission for the first phase.

Of the 259 homes being built, 130 will be “affordable homes” owned and managed by housing provider Citizen. 129 will be sold on the open market under the Linden Homes brand.

The start of work also triggers an investment of more than £2million in healthcare, education, roads and other services.

A further 280 homes are expected to be delivered as part of a second phase on the site, and in total the wider development will eventually provide around 1,000 homes.

Work on the first phase is expected to start on site later this year.

Stephen Teagle, chief executive of Countryside Partnerships, said: “As the UK’s largest provider of multi-tenure, affordable homes, we always want to work with partners like Homes England and Citizen to deliver new developments like Windmill View.

"There’s a crippling shortage of affordable homes across the UK and we’re scaling up our ambitions to tackle that shortage and to provide homes where they are needed most.”

Nick Byrne, executive director of development at Citizen, said: “We are proud to be involved with this exciting new scheme, delivering much-needed new affordable homes for the local community.

"We’re looking forward to seeing this development progress once work starts.”

Ragu Sittambalam, senior planning and enabling manager at Homes England, added: “This is an important milestone for Countryside's Windmill View development and is the next step towards the creation of 259 new homes, many of which will be affordable, in an area of unaffordability.

"We're looking forward to seeing the new community taking shape over the coming years.”