I wrote a number of posts on this thread, page 12 on …
www.gransnet.com/forums/news_and_politics/1359511-Govt-announces-Ukrainian-style-scheme-to-bring-thousands-more-migrants-to-UK?pg=12
… looking into the background of Dutton Close which is in a very rural location 10km from Market Drayton. The close originally comprised houses for military personnel stationed at RAF Tern Hill and their families. The site closed as an RAF station on 31 December 1976.
The land on which the new houses have been built is part brownfield and part greenfield. The brownfield site was a derelict building, once a social clubhouse known as The Club in planning documents. It looks at though it dates from the time of the original houses so one might assume it was once used by RAF families.
Planning permission was originally granted ten years ago in 2016 for 25 houses, one on the brownfield site, 16 on the greenfield site, with three designated social housing under S106. The S106 requirement was removed in March 2026 after local housing associations showed no interest in the three houses.
Work did not begin until 2022 but the original developers went bust. New developers took over in 2023. Quite why it has taken three to four years to build 25 houses is not known. Google Map images captured 15 months ago appear to show the houses in an advanced state of construction at least externally. More recently, in response to the outcry over who would live in the new houses, local residents have said the site is not complete, roads not laid and that there is an issue in the close with flooding.
What I have not been able to find is any evidence that the developers have ever offered the 22 houses for sale on the open market (now 25 after the S106 provision was removed) - which is odd.
Accounts to 30 April 2025 for O’Shea Brothers (Dutton Close) Ltd, which only covers the Dutton Close development, shows stock valued at £3 million. Stock is valued at the lower of cost and expected selling price less any costs of sale.
If, as had been reported, the houses are worth £250,000 and there are 25 similar houses that’s over £6 million in potential sales - (although that number looks high compared to recent sales of established houses in the close and would suggest a considerable new-build premium).
Why would a developer not want to sell them and potentially make a £3 million profit on the open market?
I’d be very interested to know what arrangement the developers have with the Home Office agency, to buy or lease these houses, when the agreement was entered into, who considered such a rural location suitable to house families seeking or granted asylum and where this leaves the developers now?
MP Mark Pritchard giving an update after the public meeting.
www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1030531516457459
