Little progress has been made on gargantuan plans for 1,200 flats in Reading town centre a year on from a major announcement.
Last year, Reading Borough Council announced that it had selected McLaren Living to be its development partner for the massive Minster Quarter Central project.
The development would see more than 600 new homes, a 102-bed hotel and 40,000 square feet of commercial space for office, food and retail businesses being established in the area to the rear of Broad Street Mall.
The company was also selected by AEW, the owners of Broad Street Mall, to be the housing provider for its project to add 644 flats to the mall.
Therefore the area to the rear of the mall is set to have 1,200 homes added to it once both developments are complete.
Despite McLaren Living being announced as the Minster Quarter development partner in February last year, there has been virtually no public update on the project since then.
Developers typically follow a procedure when undertaking major projects such as this.
The first step is convening a pre-application consultation process before a plan is submitted, which can include physical and virtual meetings.
AEW and McLaren Living hosted a pre-application consultation event for the Broad Street Mall apartments plan in July 2023.
However, no such event has taken place for the Minster Quarter Central project yet.
A council spokesperson explained that an extensive amount of collaboration is taking place with McLaren Living before any plan is submitted, which is being undertaken independently from the Broad Street Mall project.
The spokesperson said: “McLaren Living, the council’s development partner for Minster Quarter Central, is working through due diligence prior to commencing its pre-planning application consultation process.
“A significant amount of collaborative working with the council is required prior to McLaren Living developing its concept design and commencing community engagement, which is to be expected for a development brief of this scale and ambition.
“McLaren Living’s pre-planning community engagement strategy will be developed in partnership with the council and key stakeholders.
“Engagement and collaboration between adjoining sites and stakeholders will be important for the successful delivery of the wider Minster Quarter regeneration.
“However, timescales for Minster Quarter Central are independent of McLaren Living’s proposed development at neighbouring Broad Street Mall.”
It is unclear when the Broad Street Mall project will be determined by the council’s planning applications committee, as revisions were submitted last September.
The Minster Quarter area is made up of the area between the mall and Reading Crown Court.
Of the more than 600 homes being proposed, at least 30 per cent will be designated as affordable.
