Keyland submits 13 planning applications in 12 weeks

Proposed Keyland development site in the Aire Valley area

Keyland Developments Ltd, the property trading arm of Kelda Group and sister-company to Yorkshire Water, has submitted its highest volume of planning applications within a 3 month time period, with 13 separate applications going in to councils across the Yorkshire region to redevelop vacant land into some 340,000 sq ft of employment space and 55 new homes and conversions.

On the sites identified for commercial development, Keyland submitted three outline planning applications which could collectively create around 700 new jobs.

The applications seek to transform former treatment works sites in Bradley and Colne Bridge, West Yorkshire into mixed employment developments totalling 75,000 sq ft of employment space. Both proposed developments are on sites which lie within the designated Regeneration Area as defined in the Kirklees Urban Development Plan (UDP) and collectively have the potential to generate some 200 new jobs for the area.

Additionally, an outline planning application has been submitted to Leeds City Council to bring back into use a vacant 16 acre site strategically located within the Aire Valley area of Leeds into a 265,000 sq ft mixed-employment development with the potential to create some 500 new jobs. The site is located off Pontefract Lane between Cross Green Industrial Estate and the Leeds City Region (Aire Valley) Enterprise Zone at J45 of the M1 motorway.

Keyland’s residential planning submissions range from conversions of vacant barns and farmhouses across south, west and north Yorkshire into unique homes, some of which have extensive land surrounding the properties and carry Listed status. Other applications are for new housing developments on vacant sites including; 23 semi-detached and detached homes on a proposed disused Yorkshire Water Reservoir site in Warmsworth, Doncaster, 9 homes on a 1.5 acre open site adjacent to a Yorkshire Water reservoir in Kimberworth, Rotherham, 12 semi-detached homes on a former Yorkshire Water site the north of Owlcotes Road in Pudsey and a residential development of 5 homes in Weetwood in Headingley, West Yorkshire.

All the planning applications strive to unlock underutilised and vacant land across the Yorkshire region to facilitate job-creating commercial developments and high quality housing developments and unique conversions to make a positive contribution to the region’s housing needs.

Keyland is a major landowner with over 4m sq ft of commercial space in its own right and an active development pipeline of some 5,650 residential units in its own portfolio and joint ventures

The Keyland team has built an unrivalled reputation on its core strength of resolving complex development issues to maximise the value of large or small-scale brownfield and greenfield sites for either commercial or residential use.

After two decades of developing a successful formula for maximising the value of Yorkshire Water sites, Keyland extends this service to other landowners in the North of England. By working with third party landowners through PPA’s, Keyland can bring about the revival of sites that have not yet realised their full potential. Keyland’s offer takes all the risk to protect the landowner.

Keyland also holds a coveted place on the new public sector land delivery framework, Land Solve, which will see the team working as a Land Broker with public and charitable sectors across the country to maximise the value of surplus land by securing its development potential.

With a 100% success rate on 51 consecutive planning permissions since 2012, Keyland now has 22 active sites going through the planning process. The recent flurry of submissions is as a result of Keyland identifying demand across the commercial and residential sectors for the provision of new employment space and homes within the region.

Luke Axe, Planning Manager at Keyland Developments Ltd, said; “With access to such a diverse and interesting land bank, we are able to respond accordingly to market demand within both the regional residential and commercial markets. We have experienced an extremely busy period with multiple applications being submitted, and all the sites currently in the planning process have the potential to make positive contributions in their respective areas. The market is certainly gathering momentum and hopefully our sites can assist with both the employment and housing demand that we have identified.”