Turvey is a village located in Bedfordshire six miles west of Bedford. This is an area in the ‘heart of England, and has seen significant developments in recent years.
Three miles south of Bedford, the ‘Wixams’ development is currently being constructed, and it is due to be the largest new community built in the UK since World War II.
It consists of four villages, with a town centre, and will also include over a million square feet of office space, three lower schools, two middle schools, and one upper school, as well as a range of shops, a library and a train station with a direct link to London (Bedfordshire county Council; Gallagher Estates, 2009).This will ensure the future development of the area, and most importantly, Wixams is only seven miles from Aston Lloyd’s Turvey site.
Mid-Bedfordshire District Council is also currently in consultation to become the site of one of the government’s eco-towns. These are intended to be new towns which are designed to meet the highest standards of sustainability, including low and zero carbon technologies and good public transport. These new towns will contain 20,000 homes and if the plans are given the go-ahead, land will be needed for this (Department for Communities and Local Government, November 2008).
As well as this, a 250-acre site is being developed four miles south of Bedford for National Institute for Research into Aquatic Habitats (NIRAH) which will bring further interest to the area.
These new developments are causing land in Bedfordshire to become increasingly sought after, and the county is well placed to make the most of the upturn in the economy.
In Turvey itself, house prices have remained relatively stable. The average price of a two bedroom house in March 2010 is £202,000, up 5.8% from February, showing the demand of the region. This makes it well-placed for developers looking for new sites.
