WORK to prepare land in Congleton for almost 400 new homes in Congleton will start imminently, Castle Green Homes has confirmed.

The homebuilder is primed to begin developing a 57-acre site on Viking Way to provide 396 new homes.

Around two thirds of the development will be affordable housing under a partnership with Torus.

The initial phase of works will be carried out by civil engineering contractors who will create the roads and sewers for the development, along with the substructure to the homes.

It’s expected that construction of the homes will begin in September.

Partnerships director for Castle Green Eoin O’Donnell said: “We’re proud to be working alongside Torus to deliver much-needed new homes in Congleton. Around 60% of the overall development will be affordable homes, available for shared ownership or affordable rent. The remaining 160 will be private sale homes.

“We’re aiming to deliver homes to Torus at a record pace so they can place local families in well-designed, fuel-efficient homes as soon as possible. To do this we’ll have two phases of affordable homes being built simultaneously with between 100 and 200 people working on the site. Alongside this, we’ll have around 70 people building the private sale homes on the Woodland Manor phase of the development.”

Castle Green expects to handover the first affordable homes over to Torus by the middle of 2025. The homebuilder is targeting delivering 16 homes a month for the housing group, with the aim that all homes being built for Torus will be completed by December 2026.

Director of development & technical at Torus Developments Steve Alcock said: “Partnerships, like the one we have with Castle Green Homes, allow us to build even more affordable homes in sought after areas across the region. Congleton will see us deliver the largest number of affordable homes on a single site to date. There is real synergy between Torus and Castle Green to create a thriving new community together.”

The first of the 160 private sale homes at Woodlands Manor are due to be released for sale off plan next month, with show homes scheduled to open in spring 2025.

The first private sale homes are expected to be ready to move into in spring 2025. It’s anticipated the overall development will be completed by the middle of 2028.

The new homes being built will lead to circa £4.3million being contributed towards the Congleton Northern Link Road.