A trio of proposed residential developments are underlining the increasing popularity and success of Preston.
The sites of two large former hospitals just outside the city have been earmarked for development, while an area in the southerly suburb of Penwortham, where around 2,000 new homes will be built, has been given a new name.
Plans afoot for The Lanes
Taylor Wimpey and Homes England have announced that the proposed site for the new homes, on what was called Pickering’s Farm, is to be known as The Lanes. A new plan for the scheme will be delivered in March, following the second public consultation that closed recently.
As well as homes, a school, community centre and leisure facilities have been proposed. Access in and around Preston from Penwortham should improve when a new road linking it to Walton-le-Dale is completed by Easter this year.
Large hospital sites for redevelopment
To the north of the city in Goosnargh, the site of Whittingham Hospital, which closed in 1995, is closer to a long-mooted regeneration. Once the largest psychiatric hospital in Britain, Whittingham was acquired by the Homes & Communities Agency in 2005. The agency’s successor, Homes England, has now chosen CampbellReith to devise a masterplan for the 150-acre site, which is expected to need a new relief road and major infrastructure work.
Homes England has also put forward an application for building on the site of Ribbleton Hospital, to Preston’s eastern edge. Around 140 homes are planned for the nine-acre site, which has lain unused since the hospital closed in 2015 – it was demolished last year.
Discover more about two developments in Preston: Station Terrace and The Sorting Office
The projects would add much-needed housing stock to the Preston market – homes that are needed due, in part, to the city’s new in-demand status. It was named as Britain’s most-improved city by PwC in November last year and outranks Manchester and Liverpool on a range of measures including employment, workers’ pay, house prices, transport, the environment, work-life-balance and inequality.
Unemployment has fallen from 6.5% in 2014 to 3.1% in 2017, and over 44% of 16-24-year olds held at least an NVQ level 3 qualification, compared to only 34% in 2014.
It’s relative proximity to both Manchester and Liverpool, with rail and road links, make Preston an attractive option to commute from. The growth of the University of Central Lancashire to around 30,000 students also makes Preston a worthwhile buy-to-let option – it’s in the top 20 highest yielding buy-to-let areas in the UK.
