Lendlease gets planning go-ahead for 3,000-home scheme in Birmingham

However, reports suggested the firm will remain committed to it current UK projects. 

Lendlease has said it will look for investors for its UK construction projects that would previously been funded with its own money.

The Smithfield project will include 3,079 flats, with around 40% for rent, according to Lendlease’s website. 

On the affordable element, the “blended amount” for the full and outline scheme is 10.87%, according to Birmingham Council’s report on the application.

Of the affordable proportion, 80% is proposed to be intermediate or affordable home ownership options, which will break down as a quarter shared ownership, a quarter discount market sales, while the remaining half will be agreed at each phase, according to the report. 

The other 20% will be affordable rent and social rent. 

However, the report added this could be “uplifted” to 20% with grant funding from West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).

A section 106 agreement will mean Lendlease will have to show how it has engaged with WMCA to "maximise the level of affordable housing". 

The plans also include office, retail and cultural spaces.

The initial plans for the scheme involved more than 1,000 fewer homes.

Councillors postponed a decision on the project last month over concerns at the size of the proposed Smithfield Park within the site. However, Lendlease has committed to a 23% increase to the park’s minimum size in response.

Among the firm’s other major UK projects are the £8bn regeneration of Thamesmead, which is being delivered in a joint venture with Peabody.

As of March last year, Lendlease had a pipeline of around 30,000 homes in the UK. 

The firm also has a subsidiary, LTYD Homes, which has been registered as a for-profit provider of social housing since 2021.