Skip to main content
To watch YouTube videos on this site, you need to accept YouTube and Video cookies and then refresh the page.

We will act at scale and aim to deliver more than 15,000 new homes for people of all incomes – both through our own civic investment and by supporting and enabling developers to build homes, with a sustainable mix of affordable and high-end apartments and houses.

The scale of our ambition is further demonstrated as we draw down up to £10 million a year from a £50 million Futures Fund for infrastructure investment, as well as in our aim to support the creation of 13,000 jobs and £3 billion of investment value for our area. The bulk of that value and most of those jobs will come from the investment in housing.

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole have very high levels of unmet housing demand, so providing more housing is a key priority for the council. There are many housing projects for which planning permission has already been granted, or is in the pipeline, which will make a significant contribution to meeting our 15,000 new homes target – from small-scale projects with a few dozen homes, through to the redevelopment of Poole Civic Centre with potentially 250+ homes and GDV of at least £45 million, 350 new homes in the Winter Gardens redevelopment with a GDV of £150 million, and a £208 million GDV through provision of up to 500 new homes at Cotlands Road. 600 in Boscombe town centre are planned along with a minimum 830 homes project at Holes Bay.

Holes Bay for new homes

Holes Bay is the largest brownfield regeneration site in the South West of England. It was previously occupied by a coal-fired power station and has been vacant since its closure in 1994.

Now in BCP Council ownership, the development of the site could create up to 1,000 new homes in Poole, in a mixed development of market and affordable housing, retail and leisure.

This will help to accelerate the rate of housing delivery in the BCP area and deliver wider economic and community benefits, as this derelict eyesore site is transformed into a vibrant mixed community.

We are also investing around £10 million to progress three new social housing schemes, at Wilkinson Drive and Duck Lane in Bournemouth and Cynthia House site in Poole, providing much-needed additional council housing for affordable rent, social rent and shared ownership.

Urban regeneration

We are creating an urban regeneration company or a similar structure that will focus the council’s infrastructure investment on regeneration and development across the area. This vehicle provides the council with different options to deliver large-scale and smaller projects at pace. The structure will have an aligned vision, agreed outcomes and goals set out in an annual business plan, which would be approved by BCP Council’s Cabinet.

We have invested £2 million extra into our capacity to plan and deliver regeneration schemes, a recurring commitment to the resources needed. Our nationally innovative £50 million Futures Fund will provide access to capital funding to allow us to add value to our area, bring schemes to fruition quickly and invest in regeneration to help ensure we continue to emerge from the pandemic strong and successful.

We are exploring funding options for projects specifically associated with the council’s response to the climate and ecological emergency.

The consideration process will reflect on the value for money perspective and value associated with direct public investment and engagement into the project.

Wessex Fields

Wessex Fields is the ideal environment to nurture industry-leading innovation research. It provides a unique opportunity to scale-up existing collaboration (University Hospitals Dorset and Bournemouth University) to create more growth among healthcare professionals, research and businesses within a new, cutting-edge MedTech Science Park.

Digital ‘smart’ health is a growing sector and the Park’s proximity to University Hospitals Dorset provides a fantastic opportunity to combine medical research with some of the fastest IT connectivity in the country and a specialist university in medical science and healthcare. This will be a carbon-neutral development – promoting the healthy use of green space while creating a landmark development.

The Dorset MedTech Science Park will be the home of the Dorset Living Lab, as well as a mixed-use development to support the growth of the MedTech sector, including incubation facilities, grow-on space and around 500 key worker homes.

Have you encountered a problem with this page?