Eastwood: Hopes £41m housing plans on former Raleigh site will help cut council’s 1,300 waiting list
There are hopes new homes built on the former site of renowned Nottingham bike company Raleigh could be used to boost the council’s housing stock.
More than 100 new homes are set to be built on the former headquarters of the bike giant in Church Street.
Property developer Homes by Honey was granted ‘outline’ planning permission for 125 homes at the site in January 2025 and Broxtowe Council approved the development’s fresh layout and design plans – the next and more detailed stage in the planning process – on September 24.
Housing variations have been altered slightly since the plans were first submitted, meaning out of the 113 open-market homes there will be four two-beds, 56 three-beds, 48 four-beds and five five-bed properties.
Out of the scheme’s 12 affordable homes, there will be four one-bed properties, four two-beds and four three-beds.
The £41m housing development – which will be called Raleigh – will have a “contemporary slant” according to plans, contain new green space areas and its access will come from the south of Church Street.
It appears council officials may have their eyes on securing some of the affordable homes to boost their own housing stock as part of efforts to cut down its waiting list.
There are currently 1,318 active applications on Broxtowe council’s housing waiting list.
Eighty-seven of these are band one – those with urgent medical priority need – 220 are band two – those in urgent need – 363 are band three and the rest are band four.
And council leader Coun Milan Radulovic (Brox All) says a ‘significant portion’ of band one and two applications are looking for properties in Eastwood.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), Coun Radulovic said he wants to ‘sit down’ with the authority’s housing team and the developer to see if some could be used to address ‘mmediate need’ of council homes.
He said: “We’d love to sit down with our team and the developer to see how we could purchase a number of properties as part of our wider remit, to make sure those people in Eastwood are catered for now and in future.
“We’d add them to our housing stock, the developer would have a guaranteed sale.
"The people of Eastwood would look forward to having a better quality of life.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity to take a need for people, particularity in the Eastwood are – also for people with disabilities or larger families where we haven’t got land available elsewhere.”
He added that there needs to be an effort to acquire the right housing for those living with medical needs and to fit homes out with adaptations.
He continued: “People are living longer with complex needs and we have not got the housing to meet their living requirements.”
Coun Robert Bullock (Brox Alliance), who represents Eastwood Hall, said: “The council is a ready buyer.
“We need homes for people on the housing waiting list who can’t afford to buy a property.
“The cost of living’s biting, one of the costs that’s biting people is the cost of housing, spending a large part of their income on their mortgage or rent costs.”
He added that Eastwood has the ‘biggest housing waiting list than other areas of the borough’.
The council owns its own housing stock and currently manages around 4,400 properties.
Raleigh moved onto the Church Street site in the early 2000s but its head office moved to the nearby Durban House in August 2024.
The company first proposed plans to turn the site into new housing in 2019, in which the council granted outline planning permission for in 2020.
Further housing plans were submitted again 2023 following a period of economic uncertainty following the pandemic.