Land on vital Leeds homes site in limbo

The future of a masterplan which will breathe life and economic prosperity into the east of Leeds could be thrown into doubt if decision makers don’t stop dragging their heels on promoting sites to developers, experts have suggested.

The vision for the East Leeds Extension, which includes a huge expansion to Thorpe Park and up to 7,000 new homes, is considered vitally important to the city’s economic prosperity and critical to its Northern Powerhouse ambitions.

It was reported last week that the plan had received a boost after a £162 million investment deal was signed with pensions and insurance giant Legal and General. The expansion of Thorpe Park is expected to create a total of 13,000 jobs.

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The project also promises to unlock land for thousands of homes through the construction of the first section of the planned East Leeds Orbital Road (ELOR).

However it is feared a lack of positive engagement with many of the smaller landowners along the key route of the proposed ELOR is contributing to large blocks of land sitting in development limbo.

Chris Carr, Northern England spokesman for the Federation of Master Builders, whose family firm has been building homes for a century, said many factors were potentially “blocking delivery of the Northern Powerhouse”.

He said the “piecemeal effect” of hundreds of individual landowners waiting on sometimes unrealistic expectations for the price they can get was a major problem, as was a failure by key stakeholders to sit down together.

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