Willmott Dixon to build £136m Stage development in middle of Bedfordshire town
A mixed-use scheme in the middle of Luton that the local council publicly blamed the Building Safety Regulator for delaying has finally got the green light for Willmott Dixon to start.
Over the summer, Luton borough council’s director of property and infrastructure Roger Kirk told councillors the £136m Stage development, which includes three residential blocks, had been repeatedly held up by the regulator.
He told the committee: “The regulatory organisation has been unresponsive, despite lobbying at ministerial and senior civil servant level.”
The planning application for the Stage was submitted in July last year and had a statutory determination deadline of last November.
The council said the BSR had requested three deadline extensions but the regulator said these were due to “vital” building control processes introduced following the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
A spokesperson for the Health and Safety Executive, currently the umbrella organisation for BSR, told the BBC in June the Stage “failed to demonstrate that the buildings, if constructed as designed, would meet legal requirements”.
But these have now been resolved with the job getting gateway 2 approval allowing Willmott Dixon to start work on a job which will include nearly 300 apartments. It will also include commercial units and a new public garden square.
The scheme is part of the Luton Town Centre Masterplan and is being backed by £20m from the government’s Local Regeneration Fund, formerly known as the Levelling Up Fund.
Others working on the scheme include consultants WSP and Rider Levett Bucknall.
No comments yet