Latest news with #HeidiAlexander
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Business
- Yahoo
New company tasked with building up to 40,000 homes on brownfield railway land
The Government has launched a property company to oversee the release of brownfield sites on surplus railway land to enable tens of thousands of new homes to be built. Platform4 will ensure up to 40,000 homes are built over the next decade, the Department for Transport (DfT) said. The organisation will initially operate across England and Wales, with potential to expand to Scotland. Its roles were previously carried out by London and Continental Railways Ltd and Network Rail's property team, with each managing different aspects of the process. The DfT said this 'fragmented approach' often led to 'inefficiencies, duplicated efforts and missed opportunities'. Profits generated from Platform4 will be reinvested into Britain's railways. The business is expected to generate an additional £227 million by delivering development faster and at a larger scale than before. Four locations already earmarked for regeneration are Newcastle Forth Yards (an opportunity for up to 600 new homes), Manchester Mayfield (up to 1,500 new homes), Cambridge (425 new homes), and Nottingham (200 new homes). Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said: 'Our railways are more than just connections between places – they create economic opportunity and drive regeneration. 'It's exciting to picture the thousands of families who will live in these future homes, the vibrant neighbourhoods springing up, and the new businesses that will launch thanks to these developments. 'Platform4 will breathe new life into these spaces, delivering tens of thousands of new homes as part of our Plan for Change promise to build 1.5 million homes, while reviving communities around rail stations, supporting jobs and driving economic growth.' Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said: 'We are facing a housing crisis which has led to a generation being locked out of homeownership, all while land sits empty and disused across the country. 'We said we'd do everything possible to get Britain building, and that's why today we're setting out how we'll get more homes built across surplus railway network sites in line with our brownfield-first approach.' Platform4 will be chaired by Bek Seeley, who has held several roles in regeneration projects. She said: 'Working alongside our partners and local authorities, we will create sustainable places that bring communities and customers together and leave a positive legacy for future generations.'
The Independent
19 minutes ago
- Business
- The Independent
New company tasked with building up to 40,000 homes on brownfield railway land
The Government has launched a property company to oversee the release of brownfield sites on surplus railway land to enable tens of thousands of new homes to be built. Platform4 will ensure up to 40,000 homes are built over the next decade, the Department for Transport (DfT) said. The organisation will initially operate across England and Wales, with potential to expand to Scotland. Its roles were previously carried out by London and Continental Railways Ltd and Network Rail's property team, with each managing different aspects of the process. The DfT said this 'fragmented approach' often led to 'inefficiencies, duplicated efforts and missed opportunities'. Profits generated from Platform4 will be reinvested into Britain's railways. The business is expected to generate an additional £227 million by delivering development faster and at a larger scale than before. Four locations already earmarked for regeneration are Newcastle Forth Yards (an opportunity for up to 600 new homes), Manchester Mayfield (up to 1,500 new homes), Cambridge (425 new homes), and Nottingham (200 new homes). Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said: 'Our railways are more than just connections between places – they create economic opportunity and drive regeneration. 'It's exciting to picture the thousands of families who will live in these future homes, the vibrant neighbourhoods springing up, and the new businesses that will launch thanks to these developments. 'Platform4 will breathe new life into these spaces, delivering tens of thousands of new homes as part of our Plan for Change promise to build 1.5 million homes, while reviving communities around rail stations, supporting jobs and driving economic growth.' Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said: 'We are facing a housing crisis which has led to a generation being locked out of homeownership, all while land sits empty and disused across the country. 'We said we'd do everything possible to get Britain building, and that's why today we're setting out how we'll get more homes built across surplus railway network sites in line with our brownfield-first approach.' Platform4 will be chaired by Bek Seeley, who has held several roles in regeneration projects. She said: 'Working alongside our partners and local authorities, we will create sustainable places that bring communities and customers together and leave a positive legacy for future generations.'
BBC News
20 minutes ago
- Business
- BBC News
Disused railway land to be redeveloped to build 40,000 new homes
The UK government says first-time buyers are set to benefit as it pledges to build up to 40,000 new homes on disused railway land, including former goods yards, industrial sites and station buildings, over the next ten £1bn development plans will start with previously identified projects in Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and government said it was part of its "brownfield first" approach and would create "vibrant" new the interim target of 15,000 in the first five years, is a small fraction of the total 1.5 million new homes the government has promised by the end of this parliament, plans that are already facing big hurdles. The government aims to attract £350m in private sector investment to help develop vacant industrial sites across the country, to create shops, green spaces and hotels as well as flats and is part of its bigger promise to tackle housing shortages across the those plans face a huge range of obstacles, including strains on local infrastructure such as water, sewage, schools and healthcare, and a lack of capacity in the construction industry to build the new homesIndustry groups say there are already backlogs, with hundreds of homebuilding projects held up by regulatory obstacles. A new development company, called Platform4, is being created, by rolling together two existing bodies: London and Continental Railways and Network Rail's Property Development currently have responsibility for managing disused railway land, but the Department for Transport said that this "fragmented approach" had led to "inefficiencies, duplicated efforts and missed opportunities".Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the new developments would support jobs and drive growth as well as providing much needed homes."It's exciting to picture the thousands of families who will live in these future homes, the vibrant neighbourhoods springing up, and the new businesses that will launch thanks to these developments," she Seeley, the chair of London and Continental Railways, has been appointed as chair of Platform4. However, the industry group the National Federation of Builders (NFB) said planning delays were blocking progress on existing building projects on a scale equal to the government's new to the NFB at least 40,000 new homes are being held up by regulators, including 700 projects waiting for the go-ahead from the Building Safety Regulator, which was set up in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire to oversee higher-risk NFB also said planning delays were also causing small businesses to leave the construction industry, with a knock-on effect on training and apprenticeships. Rico Wojtulewicz, the NFB's head of policy and market insight said building houses near to railway lines was a "winning blueprint" because stations "already connect up local and regional communities".But he said elsewhere government policy was adding to building costs "on at least ten fronts".The Building Safety Regulator said many applications had "taken longer than anticipated to process" and that said it was rejecting around 70% of applications because they did not meet legal requirements.
Western Telegraph
27 minutes ago
- Business
- Western Telegraph
New company tasked with building up to 40,000 homes on brownfield railway land
Platform4 will ensure up to 40,000 homes are built over the next decade, the Department for Transport (DfT) said. The organisation will initially operate across England and Wales, with potential to expand to Scotland. Its roles were previously carried out by London and Continental Railways Ltd and Network Rail's property team, with each managing different aspects of the process. The DfT said this 'fragmented approach' often led to 'inefficiencies, duplicated efforts and missed opportunities'. Profits generated from Platform4 will be reinvested into Britain's railways. The business is expected to generate an additional £227 million by delivering development faster and at a larger scale than before. Four locations already earmarked for regeneration are Newcastle Forth Yards (an opportunity for up to 600 new homes), Manchester Mayfield (up to 1,500 new homes), Cambridge (425 new homes), and Nottingham (200 new homes). Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said: 'Our railways are more than just connections between places – they create economic opportunity and drive regeneration. 'It's exciting to picture the thousands of families who will live in these future homes, the vibrant neighbourhoods springing up, and the new businesses that will launch thanks to these developments. 'Platform4 will breathe new life into these spaces, delivering tens of thousands of new homes as part of our Plan for Change promise to build 1.5 million homes, while reviving communities around rail stations, supporting jobs and driving economic growth.' Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said: 'We are facing a housing crisis which has led to a generation being locked out of homeownership, all while land sits empty and disused across the country. 'We said we'd do everything possible to get Britain building, and that's why today we're setting out how we'll get more homes built across surplus railway network sites in line with our brownfield-first approach.' Platform4 will be chaired by Bek Seeley, who has held several roles in regeneration projects. She said: 'Working alongside our partners and local authorities, we will create sustainable places that bring communities and customers together and leave a positive legacy for future generations.'
BBC News
6 hours ago
- Business
- BBC News
More trains to run between London and Hull, Newcastle and Glasgow
Additional train services will run on the East Coast Main Line from December, the rail regulator has open-access operators – Lumo, Grand Central and Hull Trains – applied to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) to expand their timetablesThe successful proposals include additional trains between London and each of Hull, Newcastle and ORR rejected some plans, including a bid by Hull Trains to run direct services between London and Sheffield, due to concerns about insufficient capacity on the line. FirstGroup, which owns Hull Trains, said it was "disappointed" by the decision, as it would have provided Sheffield with its first regular service from London King's Cross since claimed the direct service would have served "an estimated 350,000 people".Hull Trains was given permission to run an additional service from London King's Cross to Hull on weekdays and will be allowed to extend its existing London-Edinburgh service to Glasgow, and will also put on additional services between King's Cross and Grand Central will expand its regional services with a new link to Seaham, on the County Durham coast, and additional trains between Wakefield and Bradford. 'Greater choice' Stephanie Tobyn, ORR's director of strategy, policy and reform, said: "We have ensured the approval of these services can be accommodated alongside the major service uplifts by other operators, which have been planned into the December 2025 timetable."Passengers and freight customers would benefit from "more direct connections and greater choice", she operators set their own fares, take on all revenue risk and receive no taxpayer-funded are also excluded from the government's ongoing nationalisation of the UK's train Secretary Heidi Alexander wrote to the ORR in January to highlight concerns about the open-access model causing "potential congestion" and taxpayers being "left to fill shortfalls" in maintenance approval of additional services comes after LNER, the government-owned operator that runs services on the East Coast Main Line, announced changes to timetables from December, with up to 37 daily services and quicker journeys between London King's Cross and Edinburgh. Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Download the BBC News app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad or Google Play for Android devices
