IN Brief:
- MADE Partnership is promoting around 1,300 homes on approximately 200 acres south-east of Carnforth.
- The early-stage proposal includes employment land, public open space, an ecological corridor and improved sports facilities.
- Much of the land lies within the Green Belt, so MADE is seeking allocation through Lancaster City Council’s emerging Local Plan.
MADE Partnership has unveiled an early-stage proposal for around 1,300 homes on approximately 200 acres south-east of Carnforth as it seeks to have the land allocated through Lancaster’s emerging Local Plan.
The master developer, formed by Homes England, Barratt Redrow and Lloyds Banking Group, is promoting land between Lancaster Canal and Back Lane for a mixed neighbourhood containing housing, employment space, public open space and new green infrastructure.
The proposal has not reached the planning-application stage. Much of the land is within the Green Belt, making the Local Plan process the first major test of whether development on this scale can proceed.
Lancaster City Council began preparing its new Local Plan in May 2026 under the revised plan-making system. MADE is seeking a strategic allocation through that process rather than submitting a detailed application against the existing policy position.
Allocation would establish the principle that the site can contribute to future growth, subject to planning requirements and detailed design. It would not itself grant permission for 1,300 homes or fix the final layout.
The current concept combines residential development with employment land, an ecological corridor, walking and cycling routes, public open space and improvements to facilities used by Carnforth Rangers Football Club.
Those uses reduce the proportion of the 200-acre area available for housing while providing infrastructure needed to support a new neighbourhood. Roads, drainage, landscape buffers, habitat areas and community facilities all occupy land that cannot simultaneously carry residential plots.
The Lancaster Canal creates a physical boundary along part of the site. Development around an existing waterway has to address drainage, ecological conditions, access and landscape setting, while any new crossing or connection introduces additional engineering and approval requirements.
Back Lane forms another edge to the proposal. A development of around 1,300 homes plus employment space would generate traffic across the day, requiring a transport strategy capable of handling servicing, emergency access and private vehicles alongside walking and cycling routes.
No final junction or highway design has yet been published because the proposal remains at strategic planning stage. Transport capacity will nevertheless influence whether the site is allocated and the amount of development it can ultimately support.
Green infrastructure will perform several functions if the proposal progresses. Open land can provide recreation and habitat while also carrying sustainable drainage features and routes between housing, employment areas and the wider town.
Those systems need to be incorporated before development parcels are fixed. A drainage basin or ecological corridor positioned after roads and housing have been designed can displace plots and force redesign, whereas strategic masterplanning can reserve the necessary land from the outset.
The same principle applies to utilities. A development containing more than a thousand homes needs sufficient water, wastewater, electricity and communications capacity, together with routes through which those services can be installed and maintained as construction advances through several phases.
MADE’s role as master developer is intended to coordinate that infrastructure before individual housebuilders enter later parcels. Roads, utilities, drainage and landscape works can then be planned across the whole site rather than negotiated separately by each developer.
That structure can also address the uneven timing of infrastructure expenditure. Major roads or utility upgrades may be required during an early phase even though much of their capacity will serve homes constructed several years later.
Without a master developer or another mechanism for sharing those costs, the first residential phases can carry an uneconomic burden or essential infrastructure can be delayed until later development provides sufficient revenue.
The Carnforth proposal also sits within an existing local planning framework. The town has an adopted Neighbourhood Plan from 2023, while Lancaster’s replacement Local Plan is now being prepared under the 2026 planning regulations.
The strategic allocation process will therefore have to reconcile district-wide housing and employment requirements with local policies, Green Belt considerations and technical evidence around transport, infrastructure and the environment.
MADE has begun engagement with Carnforth Town Council and Carnforth Rangers Football Club, while IDP Architects and planning consultancy Lichfields are associated with development of the proposal.
The partnership has also estimated that the employment element could generate almost £40m a year in local economic output, although the amount and form of commercial development remain subject to the same Local Plan and later planning stages as the housing.
No construction start can be set while the land remains unallocated and without planning permission. If Lancaster ultimately identifies the site for development, detailed masterplanning will still need to establish roads, drainage, utilities, green corridors, development parcels and phasing before individual housing packages can move towards site.
The current proposal therefore marks the beginning of land promotion rather than an imminent housebuilding programme. Its next substantive milestone is whether Lancaster’s emerging Local Plan accepts development on the site and defines the infrastructure and environmental requirements that a future planning application would have to satisfy.
