Keepmoat is building 143 new homes on derelict rail sidings at Heaton Down Yard.

The £37m Heaton Quarter development is supported by Newcastle City Council and Network Rail.

Of the 143 new homes to be built, seven will provide affordable rent homes via Bernicia Housing, and a further 41 will provide rent to buy and other tenures in partnership with Karbon Homes. Fourteen of the homes will also be available to buy through discount market sale.

Teams from Keepmoat, Network Rail and Newcastle City Council developed a biodiversity strategy that includes a biodiversity mosaic corridor between the development and the main East Coast rail line. Network Rail has committed to maintain it for at least 30 years. The strategy also features a noise attenuation bund and a series of ecological habitats for local wildlife. A series of swales and SUDS basins will be installed throughout the site to accommodate surface water at times of high rainfall.

Network Rail property director Robin Dobson said: “Heaton Quarter is a great example of how Network Rail can successfully work with public and private partners to unlock railway land and secure planning to enable the delivery of much needed new homes. Working with Newcastle City Council and Keepmoat we can transform this brownfield land, create a new community and introduce additional biodiversity across Network Rail’s estate. This represents an innovative development for Network Rail and a recognition that rail line corridors play a key in biodiversity provision across the UK.”

Keepmoat regional managing director Ian Worgan said: “Heaton Quarter is the ninth scheme in Newcastle upon Tyne that Keepmoat has undertaken in recent years in partnership with the city council, producing around 1,000 new homes, and we are looking forward to working with our partners to breathe new life into the disused railway yard and deliver much needed new, energy-efficient homes to local people.”

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