By Peter Garrett, Managing Director
As we reach the half year point in this financial year, here’s a quick look back at the first six months and a bit of a preview of what’s to come in the rest of the year. The year started off on the right foot for us as we agreed a deal to sell our 15 acre site at Balby, Doncaster to Total Developments. Total were already cracking on with their site next door and it made sense to add our site to theirs. Thanks to Iain McPhail at Knight Frank for helping push this through. The site can bring over 230,000sq ft of new industrial and logistics space to the Yorkshire market.
The longstanding Keyland/Evans partnership continues, including our strategic residential site along the East Leeds Orbital Road at Whinmoor and our proposed 1m sq ft industrial development at Tingley, right next to J28 of the M62.
Looking forward and with the Labour government fast out of the traps with a revised draft of the NPPF, we’re very optimistic about our future development plans. Most of our residential sites are on third party land, which we’re promoting on behalf of landowners on the back of planning promotion agreements, a part of our business that has seen some fantastic growth over the last few years. I’m not sure the planning system is easily going to be able to deliver the early wins that the government is no doubt seeking, but at least there’s more positivity in the air than there’s been for a long time.
I’m reminded of my first job as a junior planner in Development Control at Watford Borough Council. The senior planner of our two-man team was on long term sick leave, so six weeks after finishing a planning degree at Brum Poly and I was effectively the development control team for North Watford. It’s amazing how many applications you can deal with an approval stamp in hand and Heseltine’s line about development proposals being approved unless they would cause ‘demonstrable harm to interests of acknowledged importance’ ringing in your ears! So, much to do in the coming months as we review our portfolio and see how we might help this new administration achieve their aim of delivering the 1.5m new homes in five years.
In addition to pushing forward on the planning front and signing more deals, the Keyland team still found time for what I would euphemistically call a Nice Long Walk. Raising much needed funds for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, we completed the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge. Feeling every one of my 60 years, at times I trailed quite a way behind the rest of the Keyland team, but despite my best efforts to slow things down we still managed to complete the 24.5 miles in just over ten hours. The photo shows the Keyland team sporting our new liveried gilets in the car park of the Golden Lion pub at the start of the walk in Horton in Ribblesdale. We did take a photo at the end of the walk, but you don’t want to see a grown man cry…