Vistry Homes to sell first 50 homes in Grantham despite A52 delays

A developer has been allowed to sell and fill the first 50 houses of a major housebuilding project earlier than expected.

South Kesteven District Council's planning committee has agreed that the Vistry Homes can occupy and sell its first 50 homes in the King's Newton project in Grantham before completing improvements at the nearby A1/A52 junction, a requirement for the overall development.

In January 2023, planning permission was granted for 448 new homes on land formerly known as Rectory Farm. The development consists of two parcels of land: 228 homes on the eastern parcel, delivered by Vistry Homes, and 220 homes on the western parcel, delivered by Jelson Homes.

Vistry had previously sought to occupy 150 homes before the junction improvements were made, but the planning committee rejected this due to safety concerns. The company is appealing this decision.

The latest application sought to occupy 30 homes on the Vistry side of the development and a further 20 on the Jelson side.

During a meeting on Thursday, Mike Walker, land director for Vistry Homes, explained that the company has been working hard to move forward with improvements to the junction but has faced extended delays with National Highways.

He stated: "Since the approvals, we’ve been working closely with relevant parties to finalise the improvements and detailed designs, but due to extensive delays with National Highways that are out of our control, these works simply cannot progress at the rate we would all like them to. It’s been years to date."

Addressing concerns about whether the company was trying to avoid completing the improvements, Mr Walker insisted that the company has invested over two years of work from its design and technical consultants and recently spent £350,000 on onsite investigations on the A52.

"We don’t spend that sort of money without the intention of completing the works," he added.

Mike stated that both Vistry and Jelson remained committed to improving the junction and that allowing occupancy of the first 50 homes would help address the current shortfall in local housing.

When asked by Councillor Vanessa Smith (Green Party) what would happen to the appeal of the previous application if successful with this new one, Mr Walker responded that the company would be "reluctant to withdraw it."

He also emphasised that the company was not attempting to occupy all of the homes through repeated applications, despite a member of the public suggesting otherwise.

"We’re not trying to do this by stealth," he said.

Ultimately, the committee chose to approve the application, despite concerns raised by several speakers.

Councillor Helen Crawford (Conservative) noted: "We don’t have the evidence to go against this application, unfortunately."

She added: "I don’t like where we are with this, but I feel to get the changes we need, these 50 homes need to be built, and then we can get on with it."