Building the Future Commission

Phoenix rising: Plans for the ‘largest timber development in UK’ take shape

2023-03-15T06:10:00

Aerial view of the Phoenix (Human Nature with Periscope)

Source: Human Nature with Periscope

A new East Sussex-based developer is seeking to disrupt the housebuilding sector and create a template for higher density, walkable neighbourhoods, writes Ben Flatman

Recent decades have seen housebuilding in the UK consolidated into the hands of a few large companies. Where there was once a diversified industry that included many small and medium-sized firms, we now have 80% of the country’s new housing delivered by five big players. Breaking into the sector and exploring alternative ways of doing things can be challenging.

But a new developer, Human Nature, is seeking to demonstrate that smaller, independent players still have a role to play in the sector. And not only that: The Phoenix project in the historic East Sussex town of Lewes seeks to break the mould in other ways, too. Primarily by delivering on the often touted but rarely achieved promise of building a genuinely sustainable new neighbourhood.

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