Milton Keynes East

Lichfields has driven forward the delivery of this large-scale expansion of Milton Keynes, east of the M1, since 2010. We secured a local plan allocation, outline planning permission, £94.6m of Housing Infrastructure Funding, and are now implementing the detail of Milton Keynes East (MKE); a new mixed-use neighbourhood. The outline permission in 2022 was 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; and full permission addressed for new strategic highways including a new bridge over the M1.

 

The masterplan takes forward principles that have made MK one of the UK’s most successful local economies and builds on Milton Keynes Council’s long-held approach of ‘Infrastructure before Expansion’. The MKE extension paves the way for further eastern expansion that is part of the New Town recommended in September 2025 by the New Towns Taskforce, and on which Lichfields continues to advise. 

 

Lichfields provided planning consultancy, economics and EIA co-ordination roles.  The land was first 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 was a continuation 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.