Insurance company Prudential has unveiled proposals for 7500 homes in Reading, Berkshire.

Prudential Portfolio Investment Managers (PruPIM) is due to submit an application at the end of this month for the redevelopment of a redundant 910 ha gravel works in the Kennett Valley to the south-east of Reading. The development is next to PruPIM’s Green Park business park.

One-fifth of the site will be developed. The rest will remain meadows, woodlands and open water. PruPIM has appointed Danish architect HLT to masterplan the site in what will be the first large project that the practice has carried out in the UK.

The site will be developed at densities from 30 to 90 dwellings per hectare. A range of homes will be built, from one-bedroom flats to five-bedroom houses.

Kevin Ashman, PruPIM development director, said the development would remedy what he described as a “serious shortage” of homes in west Berkshire and Reading.

He said: “ We have a longstanding involvement in and commitment to the area as an investor, employer, occupier and developer and we’re in it for the long term. ”

Housebuilder Berkeley Group announced on Tuesday that it had formed a joint venture with Prudential to develop three residential schemes in the South-east with a landbank of more than 2500 homes.