Ministry of Defence fires up resi at RAF Henlow
The Ministry of Defence is preparing its next large residential scheme, with a 1,100-home development at RAF Henlow.
A partnership between the Defence Infrastructure Organisation and Homes England will see redevelopment of some 200 acres at the former RAF station in Bedfordshire.
The pair have instructed Avison Young to advise on planning, and expect to lodge proposals with Central Bedfordshire Council in September. The scheme will comprise 1,100 homes and 280,000 sq ft of commercial and industrial space, with retail, sports, health and nursery facilities. It will also incorporate a care home and a primary school.
The Ministry of Defence is preparing its next large residential scheme, with a 1,100-home development at RAF Henlow.
A partnership between the Defence Infrastructure Organisation and Homes England will see redevelopment of some 200 acres at the former RAF station in Bedfordshire.
The pair have instructed Avison Young to advise on planning, and expect to lodge proposals with Central Bedfordshire Council in September. The scheme will comprise 1,100 homes and 280,000 sq ft of commercial and industrial space, with retail, sports, health and nursery facilities. It will also incorporate a care home and a primary school.
Development of the site is part of a wider strategy between the DIO and the government’s housebuilding agency to deliver 10,000 homes across seven MoD sites.
RAF Henlow was one of a handful of airfields retained after World War I. It held the UK’s first parachute testing centres and was used for training facilities, RAF maintenance and more recently a communications centre.
In 2016, the MoD announced that RAF Henlow would close as part of a £1bn savings programme. The strategy saw the department aim to reduce the size of its estate by 30% by 2040, with a target to deliver 55,000 homes by 2020.
Following criticisms of a slow pace of delivery and missed targets, the DIO teamed up with Homes England in 2019 to unlock some of the larger strategic sites.
The partners have made progress in Yorkshire, with plans for 1,300 homes at the Claro and Deverell Barracks in Ripon.
RAF Henlow would be the next large scheme to come forward, with land in Essex, Staffordshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire also earmarked for development.
The 380-acre site is situated along the economic growth corridor between Oxford and Cambridge. The MoD is working towards a full closure of the site in 2023.
RAF Henlow was also selected for the world’s first commercial astronaut training centre and the world’s deepest diving pool as a £140m deep sea and space research centre from Blue Abyss, designed by Robin Partington, the architect behind the Gherkin when he worked at Foster + Partners.
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Image © Homes England/Defence Infrastructure Organisation
