That’s just the beginning of what’s possible. Norwich is in store for a renaissance, big time! The city will soon begin handling an ill-conceived £350 million redevelopment at Anglia Square. Mike Stonard, the leader of the council, termed the deal with insurance giant Aviva as “groundbreaking.” The award will support this partnership’s plan to build 1,100 new homes. Of these, at least 90 will be social housing units dedicated to the local authorities’ waiting list.
Demolition works at the Anglia Square site will start next week. Originally established for five years, it is scheduled to end by the close of March 2026. After this period, construction is scheduled to start immediately. A grant of £34 million from the UK government has helped pay for the early costs of land acquisition and remediation. Stonard pointed to this grant as a key part of the funding plan for the redevelopment.
While all of that investment won’t come directly from Aviva, details of how much they plan to invest have not yet been made public. As Stonard was happy to point out, this partnership is proving to be what he calls “a real gamechanger” for Norwich and its housing situation.
“I believe our partnership with Aviva, which has called Norwich home since 1792, will come to be seen as an historical partnership in one of England’s most historic cities.” – Mike Stonard
And there’s a lot of confidence on this project from Mark Bousfield at Aviva Capital Partners. Among other things, he said they intend to construct each house “to the highest quality we’re capable of producing.” He acknowledged the great deal of work done together with the city council and Homes England. Together, they fought—and ultimately won—their battle to protect Anglia Square’s landscape.
“There’s been uncertainty around Anglia Square for a long time. What we’ve tried to do is painstaking work with the city council, painstaking work with Homes England, painstaking work within our own team – to understand the best possible way forward for this project.” – Mark Bousfield
Not all stakeholders are entirely happy with the agreement. Alex Catt, leader of the council’s Green group, has called for more information about the Anglia Square deal. He urged for transparency, particularly in light of the history of problems that have plagued comparable housing developments.
“If they can’t learn from the mistakes around the problems they had with Lion Homes and the money they’ve lost there, it’s going to be so hard to gain confidence in a scheme like this.” – Alex Catt
In spite of these concerns, Stonard is hopeful that the project has a viable path forward. He stressed that investors are going to do their own deep due diligence. The council will be involved to help make sure the development goes well.
“Those investors will do their due diligence, we’ll do our due diligence – so we’ll have a good prospect of ensuring those schemes can be viable and can continue.” – Mike Stonard
