IN Brief:
- Homes England has signed a Strategic Place Partnership with Hull and East Yorkshire Combined Authority.
- Hull City Council and East Riding of Yorkshire Council are involved in developing a shared housing pipeline.
- Projects include East Bank Urban Village, the Easton Road and Alamein Barracks sites, and proposed housing at Howden.
Homes England and Hull and East Yorkshire Combined Authority have signed a Strategic Place Partnership intended to coordinate housing and regeneration across the region. The agreement brings the national housing agency together with the combined authority, Hull City Council and East Riding of Yorkshire Council around a pipeline of priority development sites.
Mayor Luke Campbell and Homes England chair Pat Ritchie signed the partnership at Hull Guildhall on 9 October. The arrangement will bring national development expertise into regional planning and investment decisions at an earlier stage, particularly where land conditions, infrastructure, project viability or funding arrangements are delaying potential housing schemes.
The partners are seeking to consider major development opportunities collectively rather than as unrelated sites. That is significant in an area where regeneration includes inner-city brownfield land as well as housing locations in smaller towns. Coordinated investment decisions can help determine whether transport, utilities and community infrastructure are adequate for proposed growth.
East Bank Urban Village in Hull is a prominent example. Largely vacant land beside the River Hull is intended to accommodate a riverside neighbourhood of up to 850 homes, together with commercial space, green areas and improved walking and cycling links. Construction of the first phase is currently expected to begin in 2027, subject to the steps needed to advance that scheme.
East Bank will have to be developed in the context of its existing urban setting. The relationship between new buildings, streets, public spaces and neighbouring land will influence the shape of the development. Brownfield sites can also present questions about ground conditions, servicing and access, although project-specific investigations determine whether particular remediation measures are necessary.
Further east, Homes England is working with East Riding of Yorkshire Council on proposals at Easton Road in Bridlington and the former Alamein Barracks in Driffield. It is also supporting plans for around 1,800 homes at Howden. These locations are at different stages and cannot be treated as a single consented construction programme.
The Howden figure describes the scale of housing being pursued through related proposals, not a count of homes that have started on site. Similarly, the East Bank estimate is the development ambition for that location. Detailed planning decisions, investment agreements and delivery arrangements will determine what can ultimately be built.
Infrastructure is one of the recurring issues the partnership aims to address. New homes may increase demands on roads, public transport, drainage, water and electricity networks, as well as schools and local services. The extent of work required differs between individual sites and must be assessed through the planning and design process.
Funding and viability are closely connected to those requirements. A site may have sufficient space for housing but still depend on investment in access works or other enabling infrastructure. Bringing local priorities and Homes England’s resources together may help resolve delivery sequencing before developers and contractors are asked to mobilise.
The partnership will establish joint priorities, working arrangements and a shared business plan. These steps should clarify which sites are most deliverable and what action is needed to move them forward. They do not replace planning permission, nor do they constitute awards to building contractors.
A longer-term ambition is for places with Strategic Place Partnerships to be positioned for a Place Delivery Agreement. Such an arrangement could combine Homes England’s powers and investment capability with resources associated with the National Housing Bank. No completed Place Delivery Agreement for Hull and East Yorkshire forms part of this signing.
The combined authority’s involvement also links the housing pipeline to broader regional economic priorities, including employment, transport and regeneration. Major residential developments can change demand for local services and influence the use of adjacent commercial land, making early coordination with the relevant councils especially important.
The proposed regional working arrangements could also affect when construction packages reach the market. A coordinated pipeline may reveal shared infrastructure dependencies between developments that would otherwise be assessed separately. Resolving those dependencies requires explicit funding and project decisions, so the partnership’s success will ultimately be tested by the progress of identifiable sites rather than the number of organisations involved in the agreement.
The partnership will now prioritise schemes and the infrastructure needed to bring them forward. East Bank Urban Village carries an anticipated 2027 start for its first phase, while sites in East Riding will advance through their own planning and investment decisions.
