Work starts on 260-home Barratt estate in Morpeth

Plans for the former St George’s Hospital site in Northumberland were submitted in December, and is phase one of a 875-house development on land secured by Homes England.

The houses will range from two- to five-bedrooms, which will be split between Barratt Homes and David Wilson Homes brands, with Barratt’s called Laurel Chase at Cottingwood and David Wilson’s named The Paddocks at Cottingwood.

Twenty percent of the homes will be designed to be accessible, for example with wider doorways and step-free access, and the first homes are expected to be on sale from September.

The wider development has outline permission for up to 875 homes, a local centre, a restaurant, and open public space.

• BOOK NOW | North East Development Update

In total there will be five areas delivered by Barratt and David Wilson, with features including a greenspace corridor named the Racecourse, which will run along a former racecourse alignment; Green Street, with properties set back to enable mature landscaping; Front Street, designed to reflect the historic architecture of Northumberland’s market towns; Cotting Green, which will offer wildflower meadows alongside larger detached homes; and Market Street, which will have pedestrian and cycle pathways.

As part of the project, Barratt and David Wilson will provide £1.5m to primary and secondary schools in the area and £180,000 towards public transport.

Carl Sobolewski, managing director of Barratt and David Wilson Homes North East, commented: “Our brand new Morpeth development is a completely new concept of designated areas that completely connects to our values of building ecological, energy-efficient and high-quality housing, and we’re so pleased to finally have the work commence at this development.

“We’ve seen fantastic success in Morpeth with our recently sold out Barratt Homes South Fields development, so we’re excited to be able to give potential purchasers another chance to buy one of our high-quality, energy-efficient homes in the area.”