Press Releases

Gateshead Regeneration Partnership has secured planning consent for 361 new homes across three key brownfield sites.

The Gateshead Regeneration Partnership is a consortium involving Gateshead Council, housebuilder Vistry and affordable housing provider Home Group.

The developments in the Felling, Birtley and Beacon Lough areas of Gateshead will include up to 146 affordable homes on mixed tenure development sites, where open market sale homes sit alongside affordable rented homes and shared ownership homes.

Funding totalling £11.9m has been provided by Homes England through its Brownfield Infrastructure Land (BIL) fund to bring these sites forward and help pay the costs of infrastructure and improve the land affected by many years of industrial use.

At the Brandling development in Felling, close to the central urban area of Gateshead, planning permission has been granted for 130 new 2, 3 and 4 bedroom homes, including four homes that will be provided for social rent through Home Group. The remaining homes will be available for open market sale.

Plans for the Brandling site include extensive remediation work, necessary due to the site’s rich archaeological heritage dating back to the birth of the railways and the former Felling Colliery.

Community benefits include new parking facilities for the neighbouring Brandling Primary School. 

The new homes to be built facing the historically important Wheatsheaf Public House will incorporate bespoke elevations, sympathetic to the look of the local area.

At the Elisabethville development in Birtley, planning consent has been granted for 106-1-, 2-, and 3-bedroom homes for social rent and shared ownership. The Council is aiming to acquire these properties as new Council homes.

Historically home to the ‘Birtley Belgians’ refugee community, the site has since been dedicated to council housing, most of which was demolished over 20 years ago with the land remaining vacant since.

Some existing homes will remain on the development site, with new homes to be added around them.The site will also require extensive diversions and upgrades for statutory services like gas mains and water pipes.Community benefits will include upgrades to the surrounding roads to improve connectivity to the wider borough.

At Beacon Lough, consent has been granted for 125 new 1, 2, 3 and 4 bedroom homes.The site was formerly home to council housing which was demolished over 15 years ago. Work will be carried out to improve the condition of the site, to prepare it for housebuilding.

Affordable homes in Gateshead are allocating using the Gateshead Home Choice system. Those with greater needs will benefit from a higher level of priority when bidding for homes.

Councillor Gavin Brierley, cabinet member for housing at Gateshead Council, said: “It is hugely exciting that these developments have taken another step forward. We want our residents to have good quality housing and affordable options too, and these developments will offer exactly that.”

Sean Egan, Regional Managing Director of Vistry North East, said: “Through the Gateshead Regeneration Partnership, Vistry is playing a vital role in revitalising brownfield sites that will now deliver hundreds of high-quality new homes, with up to 146 of them being affordable. 

“A range of upgrades, infrastructure and local facilities are also being delivered across the three sites, vital to support the sustainable long-term growth of evolving new communities.”

Tom Bridges, Executive Regional Director, North East, Yorkshire and the Humber at Homes England, said: “This £11.9 million investment is unlocking sites that have sat vacant for years, turning underused land into hundreds of high-quality new homes for people in Gateshead. 

“Working alongside Gateshead Council, Home Group and Vistry through the Gateshead Regeneration Partnership – and the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority through our Major Projects Delivery Unit – is exactly the kind of collaboration needed to overcome the infrastructure and viability challenges that can hold brownfield development back, and to deliver the homes local communities need."

Kitson Keen, Director of Development at Home Group, said: “We are delighted to be able to deliver much needed affordable homes in the Gateshead area. Our aim is to deliver the right homes in the right places, and with our partnership with Gateshead Council, Vistry and Homes England, we are doing just that."