Transport secretary Heidi Alexander was in the city on Wednesday morning to launch a new development company tasked with building up to 40,000 homes over the next decade on disused railway land, including the derelict Forth Goods Yard near Central Station.
That Network Rail-owned site, part of the wider Forth Yards area to the west of Newcastle city centre, could be transformed with up to 600 houses, a multi-storey car park, and an elevated pedestrian and cycle route likened to New York City’s High Line park.
It is one of four developments named as priorities for Platform 4, a new Government development company formed through a merger of London and Continental Railways Limited (LCR) and Network Rail’s Property Development team.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) at Keepmoat’s new Heaton Quarter housing estate built on an old rail yard near Chillingham Road Metro station, Ms Alexander said that was the kind of “fantastic neighbourhood” that needed to be replicated across the UK to “breathe new life into the heart of our towns and cities”.
Labour wants to see 1.5 million new homes built around the country by 2029.
Asked if the Government was willing to deliver the investment required to ensure developments like the Forth Yards can come to fruition, the transport secretary said: “We are really serious about building the new homes the country needs. One of the things Platform 4 will do is bring together the expertise of people that exists in Network Rail’s property development group and in LCR, identify a pipeline of land where we can bring forward schemes, have the knowhow to be able to navigate different bits of the railway system so that we can unlock some of the barriers that do exist on these sort of sites so we can see spades in the ground and homes being built quickly.”
The wider, 50-acre Forth Yards regeneration area is earmarked for up to 2,500 homes and it is hoped that kickstarting construction on the Network Rail plot could act as a catalyst for more investment.
The largest parcel of land in the scheme is the Quayside West site, a riverside plot in front of the Utilita Arena that was once home to the Elswick leadworks.
A 1,100-home building project on that site previously fell through and the land has since been purchased by Homes England.
However, the Government has been asked to inject a further £120 million to pay for remediation and infrastructure works that would help make it a viable proposition for house builders.
Newcastle City Council leader Karen Kilgour told the LDRS that she was “confident” that an announcement would be made soon about Quayside West.
She added: “I think the Government announcements today prove that they are serious about how we maximise usage of public sector space. The fact we have got sites like this [Heaton Quarter] shows what we can do.
“Forth Goods Yard has been mentioned as one of the sites that Network Rail is serious about bringing forward and that is a significant part of the wider Forth Yards site.
“I think when you have the public sector coming together with our private sector partners we will see some movement in the very near future.”
