Some £330k of government cash is to be poured into a project to create new homes on the site of a Norfolk village’s former primary school.
The grant, issued to Norfolk County Council (NCC) under the Brownfield Land Release Fund (BLRF), will aid the construction of 22 properties at Lingwood, near Acle.
The money will be used to help install a drainage solution for the site, to lower the development’s flood risk.
Lingwood First School, on Chapel Road, closed in 2014 when a new primary school opened on Station Road in September of that year.
Permission in principle for the site’s redevelopment was granted by Broadland District Council in 2019 - and the former school building was demolished at the end of 2020, with the project’s finer details approved in January 2022.
The company behind the scheme is Repton Property Development Ltd, which is wholly owned by NCC.
The development will comprise three two-bedroom and 19 three-bedroom homes, with an area of green open space at its centre.
Four of the homes are planned to be set at affordable rents and a further two will be shared ownership.
The scheme is one of 59 regeneration projects from Exeter to Sunderland, which is expected to see over 2,200 homes built - including over 800 affordable homes.
Michael Gove, who is back as housing secretary after a spell away from government, has emphasised the need to build on brownfield sites first, rather than encroaching on previously undeveloped land.
Commenting on the BLRF as a whole, Mr Gove’s junior colleague, housing minister Lucy Frazer, said: “Regeneration is at the heart of our levelling up mission and this new brownfield first fund will help communities across the country unlock disused, council-owned sites to build more of the right homes in the right places.”
The redevelopment of the Lingwood site had provoked some opposition from people on neighbouring Briar Close, High Way and Alison Close, who raised concerns about overlooking and loss of privacy.
Lingwood and Burlingham Parish Council had also objected on the grounds that the two-storey houses will be too close to Briar Close.
Construction is expected to begin in March 2023, and with an intended completion by the second quarter of 2024.
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