Legal & General, one of the largest operators in the growing Build To Rent sector, has acquired a 272 acre site in Berkshire with outline planning consent for 1,500 homes.

This is the second major site being brought forward by Legal & General’s housebuilding arm, Legal & General Homes. It recently started work on site at its first development, Buckler’s Park, a 250 acre 1,000-home development in Crowthorne, also in Berkshire.

Legal & General is now building homes to sell as well as operating in the Build to Rent sector, has created a modular factory in Leeds and has a commitment to build more than 70,000 new homes over the next five to 10 years.

“We have a chronic housing shortage in the UK and speeding up the delivery of new supply is key to tackling this crisis. Adopting a multi-tenure approach means that we can create homes in a much shorter timescale as well as supporting people throughout their different life stages” suggests  James Lidgate, chief executive of Legal & General Homes.

“Rather than taking 15 years to build 1500 new homes, we believe that we could achieve a 50 per cent improvement in delivery” he says.