News10.11.2510.00 AM by Zainab Hussain
A developer has been appointed to build a £250m regeneration scheme in Reading town centre with 600 homes.
The Minster Quarter scheme will provide over 600 homes, including 30% affordable housing, in Reading (picture: McLaren Living)
Sharelines
A developer has been appointed to build a £250m regeneration scheme in Reading town centre with 600 homes #UKhousing
McLaren Living has finalised a development agreement with Reading Borough Council to build the Minster Quarter scheme in the town centre.
The 5.2-acre site, once occupied by the former Civic Centre, will provide over 600 new homes across a range of tenures including 30% affordable housing. It will also have a 102-bed hotel, commercial space, public spaces and a community hub.
The development is part of the wider Minster Quarter regeneration area in Reading’s town centre, which includes Broad Street Mall, a site that is also being developed by McLaren Living to provide 1,200 homes.
Matthew Biddle, managing director of McLaren Living, said: “Our ambitions are to create a re-invigorated retail and residential destination within a mixed-use neighbourhood, providing improved public realm and accessibility to Reading’s cultural Hexagon Centre.”
Liz Terry, leader of Reading Borough Council, said: “The Minster Quarter Central project, being delivered by the council in partnership with McLaren Living, represents an unprecedented opportunity to deliver one of the best located mixed-use development opportunities in the UK, right in the heart of Reading town centre.”
Last month, Abbey Wood Sedgemere, a subsidiary of Indian developer HOH Capital Partners, received planning consent from the Greater London Authority to deliver a build-to-rent (BTR) scheme in Abbey Wood, south-east London. The scheme, which will redevelop a brownfield site, will include 35% affordable housing with over half at London Living Rent.
Plans were also submitted by Areli Developments to Tower Hamlets Council to build a 54-storey building in Canary Wharf, comprising 195 BTR apartments, 121 affordable homes, 238 co-living rooms with communal areas and 266 serviced apartment-hotel rooms.
Meanwhile, commercial landlord Landsec received approval to build 1,700 BTR homes, of which 20% will be affordable, as well as 660 student beds and 445 co-living homes on the site of a shopping centre in Lewisham, south London.
Sign up to our new Living newsletter
Picture: Alamy