Garden Communities, Urban Extensions and Strategic Land

Property Market Analysis

Town Centre Regeneration and Masterplanning

Wakefield Metropolitan District Council

Context

Wakefield East is a mixed use development which will deliver approximately 2,500 homes and 19 hectares of employment land along the Wakefield Eastern Relief Road (WERR).  Wakefield Council secured £30.1m of RGF grant funding to implement the 4.3km Eastern Relief Road scheme.  AspinallVerdi in conjunction with WYG (White Young Green) was appointed in December 2015 to advise on the preparation of the City Fields Masterplan Framework.   

Our role was to carry out property market research for the residential phases and soft market testing for the District / Local centres.  We collated all of the appraisal assumptions for the various landownerships (Miller consortium; WMDC; Keyland; Stretton and Network Rail) and sub-phases and prepared high-level financial models for the whole masterplan.

The Scheme

The original City Fields Masterplan was prepared by Spawforths and updated by WYG.  The overarching conceptual vision for the development was:

• Mixed use.
• Promoting and accommodating sustainable transport solutions for pedestrians, cyclists, buses and cars.
• A new community, well‐linked to: adjacent communities and the city centre; the local blue green network; and other local attractions.
• Including a range of well-designed house types to meet local housing need as well as provision to provide additional school places and a range of appropriate facilities grouped around a District Centre/Local Centre/Community Hub to meet residents’ day‐to‐day needs.
• Having an employment hub offering a mix of commercial and office accommodation.
• High quality design and highly energy efficient with appropriate low carbon technologies.
• As many greens as possible under the Building for Life 12 and 16 Lifetime Homes Standards.

Creation of a memorable, multi-functional and sustainable blue green space network linking to the surrounding area and contributing to City Fields becoming an attractive recreation destination and enhances the visual and ecological attractiveness of the canal and river.

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