North Essex Garden Communities Ltd (NECG), a partnership between Braintree, Colchester and Tendring district council are developing 43,000 homes across three new communities, a total of £3.5bn of investment was announced at the recent Essex & South East Development Plans.

However , that is just one facet of the massive developments that are taking place facilitated by huge projected population growth, Ian Vipond, Executive Director for the garden communities said :“We have seen a UK population migration out of places like London, North Essex is expected to increase in size by 200,000 by 2050.”

Developments of garden villages is not just limited to those by the NECG, Vipond explained: “Currently in the plans 5 garden communities across North Essex, three of those communities are in the NEGC area, there are two other schemes that are effectively private sector led”. [emaillocker id=”71749″]

This growth in residential hasn’t just occurred in the more rural areas, Vipond explained: “We have been delivering 1000 homes a year, that’s a huge rate of growth that means Colcester is now comparable to a place like Portsmouth, it’s bigger than Norwich and Bath and Reading.”

L&G Affordable Homes is a recent partnership between the property giant Legal & General and 14 housing associations which has invested “£62m since the beginning of year into Essex” according to Ross Heriot, Regional Director.

Of L&Gs Affordable Homes 3,000 homes targeted nationally for the year, there are currently contracts for 750 homes in the Essex region. The firm is also embracing innovation, including MMC, Heriot explained: “L&G have a modular factory, it has to play a role, that’s for sure.”

Chelmsford is one such rapidly developing city, Stephen Robinson, Leader of the City Council stressed the importance of the social provision of housing, he said, “We will insist that you as developers have a 35% affordable housing provision.”

Robinson explained the the city had benefited significantly from the Housing Infrastructure Fund, of which £300m was split between the cities of Colchester and Chelmsford.   Robinson praised the achievements of the science and technology industries in the city, and emphasised “bringing better jobs to Chelmsford, high-tech jobs to Chelmsford.”

The South East LEP is implementing a massive investment programme, Rhiannon Mort, Capital Programme manager explained it’s remit: “The investment fund we have, the £570m local growth fund programme, the majority of that has focused on transport infrastructure but that’s gone into a much broader remit so commercial space, skills, anything to support regeneration.”

107 projects are being supported by the LEP, which is currently “over half way through the local growth programme, having spent £370m already” according to Mort. The LEP is providing funds to the Southend Airport Business Park,  Mort explained  “We have allocated £23m in funds for the business park and provision of new commercial space, the airport itself has grown dramatically.”

Major infrastructure improvements are being supported by the LEP, Mort mentioned the “A127 Fairglen, currently going through the approval process, that’s £21m of our funding to support growth in South Essex.” The LEP is also putting £12m in funding to the new train station at Beaulieu Park in Chelmsford.

CHP housing are a housing association that are local to the Essex region, Carl Hockney, Director of Growth for the firm told delegates that they had built “3000 homes across Essex.”

Hockney spoke of their significant work going on across the region: “We’ve got 600+ homes under production, we’re predicting 400 homes finished by the end of the year, and nearly 1100 complete by 2022.”

The South-East of England has long been an area of heavy growth, and Essex is no exception to this, and is preparing for a more populous and more developed future. [/emaillocker]