Funding boost for 2,000-home urban village project

Funding has been secured for plans to create a new urban village in Leeds, that will include 2,000 homes.

Government regeneration agency Homes England will provide £16m to development group Caddick for the Leeds South Village project on the city's South Bank.

It forms part of wider efforts to regenerate the area, which has been shortlisted as one of the government's potential "new towns".

Ed Carlisle, Green Party councillor for Hunslet and Riverside on Leeds City Council, said the development had "real potential" but the "proof will be in the pudding".

Homes England said the land would be turned into a "thriving new mixed-use neighbourhood".

A proportion of the homes would be affordable, alongside commercial and "significant" green spaces, it said.

A derelict site on Leeds' South Bank has planning permission for 1,925 homes to be built.

Exact plans for what Leeds South Village would look like have not been released.

West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin said the funding would "help us support the delivery of thousands of much-needed homes for families".

She said: "Transforming disused land in Leeds South Village to build almost 2,000 new, high‑quality homes will help us deliver record numbers of affordable homes, create new thriving communities, as well as protect vital green spaces."

Housing Secretary Steve Reed said the project would "not only see local families achieve the home ownership dream but it will also open the door to job opportunities, community facilities and more green spaces".

Carlisle agreed that Leeds needed "lots more housing".

But he said: "To build communities you can't just build hundreds and hundreds of boxy flats.

"We need to have a more mixed economy of housing but also a mixed economy of community infrastructure and spaces for commerce and industry."

The "new town" does not yet have a defined boundary, but if plans go ahead, it would stretch from Holbeck to Leeds Dock.

Leeds City Council previously said it would likely include land to the east and west of the main South Bank area, extending along Kirkstall Road towards its junction with Canal Road and wrapping around the eastern edge of the city centre.

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