Planning application submitted for Milton Keynes East expansion

Lichfields, on behalf of St James Group (part of the Berkeley Group of companies), has submitted a planning application for Milton Keynes East (MKE); a mixed-use urban extension on land immediately east of Junction 14 of the M1. The hybrid application, submitted following a year of joint working between St James, their team and Milton Keynes Council, comprises an outline element for 4,000-4,600 homes, around 400,000 m² of mainly logistics employment space, community facilities and new open space, including a linear park along the River Ouzel; its detailed element comprises new strategic highways including a new bridge over the M1. The masterplan carries forward a number of the planning principles that have made MK one of the UK’s most successful local economies.

Details on the proposals, can be viewed here and include an introductory film. MKE will build upon and strengthen the qualities that make Milton Keynes a special and unique place including delivering:

• MK’s first new bridge over the M1 in 50 years
• An approach of ‘Infrastructure before Expansion’
• A 15-minute neighbourhood with a community hub at its heart
• MK’s first dementia-friendly neighbourhood
• Net biodiversity gain
• A landscape-led scheme with new riverside country park
• A reinterpretation of Milton Keynes’ grid with a new green lattice
• Climate change resilience
• Supporting Milton Keynes Council in their pledge to be Carbon neutral by 2030
• Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) supported development within the Oxford-Cambridge Arc

Lichfields provided planning consultancy, economics and EIA co-ordination roles. In addition to Lichfields, the application advisory team included WSP, JTP, Stephen George and Partners, HTA, Hankinson Duckett Associates, RPS and Hodkinson.

The application is the latest milestone for Lichfields following 10 years advising on the site. The land was allocated in Plan:MK (the Milton Keynes Local Plan) in 2019, and Lichfields worked with Milton Keynes Council and St James to prepare the successful bid that secured £94.6m of HIF, awarded in 2020 for upfront infrastructure works. MKE is also the latest phase of Lichfields’ long association with the planning of Milton Keynes; one of the company’s early projects was as part of the team that prepared the original 1970 New Town plan.