Urban Splash has been lined up to build more than 400 homes in the centre of Northstowe new town in Cambridgeshire. Once given planning, Urban Splash said it would be one of the largest sites in the country using modern methods of construction.

The developer, which last week announced that Japanese housebuilding giant Sekisui House was taking a 35% stake in the business, said it would be building 406 homes for the project at its Alfreton,Derbyshire, factory.

The architects on the scheme, located six miles from Cambridge, are Proctor & Matthews and Shed KM who are splitting the work.

Phases two and three of the Northstowe scheme,which will see the development of 8,500 new homes including a new town centre,education and sporting facilities as well as leisure, office and commercial space, is being led by Homes England.

Three hundred homes across the wider Northstowe development are already occupied.

Last week Japan’s Sekisui House announced it was investing £22m in Urban Splash House Holdings, a new operation established alongside Urban Splash, with a view to ramping up capacity at the UK group's modular homes factory in Alfreton from 200 homes a year to 2,000.

Homes England took a 5% stake in the firm worth just over £3m, while We Buy Any Car founder Noel McKee also invested in the operation, worth around 5%.

Hamish Champ