We’re facing a battle on multiple fronts
Our country faces a set of immediate and future challenges. We have to build enough homes to fix the national housing crisis, whilst also tackling the climate, energy and biodiversity emergencies, and securing our future food supply.
In Lewes District, based on the government’s figures,12,040 homes need to be built to meet local needs up to 2040. Jobs also need to be created, the environment needs to be protected and restored, local food needs to be grown, and energy solutions created.
In order to achieve this, we cannot just keep building houses of the wrong type in the wrong places.
We believe we need to take a different approach to development in order to address the national and global problems that affect us all.
North Barnes Farm located to the east of Plumpton Green, is an example of this different approach. It’s a plan for a new small market town that helps tackle problems in housing, climate, energy, transport and food. It will be created around walkable neighbourhoods that support local jobs, promote wellbeing and generate prosperity, allowing people of all ages to enjoy a fulfilled and affordable quality of life.
Please watch our short film about why we believe a new settlement is the right solution for Lewes District.
Site location
We’re creating a Place. Not Housebuilding
The alternative to our proposed small market town, is spreading new housing out across communities, adding disproportionate developments onto existing towns and villages. This would meet much of Lewes’ housing needs, but wouldn’t be large enough for investment in plentiful infrastructure, green spaces, sustainable transport options or generate much needed jobs.
*in order to meet the full housing need of 12,040 new homes.
There aren’t enough brownfield sites in Lewes or East Sussex to meet local housing needs.
Areas outside of the South Downs National Park across Lewes District where new homes can be accommodated are scarce, and brownfield sites, so often seen as the solution, are even scarcer still.
North Barnes Farm is the right place to meet local needs
Building a new community is the better option for Lewes District. Our task is to create homes and jobs in resilient, walkable and sustainable communities that encourage food growing and small-scale farming, for the benefit of future generations and the environment.
Our site is the only credible major proposal in Lewes District that can achieve genuine environmental and social sustainability. We will create strong neighbourhoods where people want to live, combining the best of modern place creation with local Sussex tradition.
If North Barnes Farm is included in the new Local Plan that Lewes District Council are preparing, existing towns and villages can be protected from unnecessary overdevelopment by concentrating the homes we need in a sustainable place alongside all required infrastructure.
If we work together, North Barnes Farm will become a shining example of how things can and must be done differently.
