Framlingham has experienced considerable growth in recent years with schemes at Fore Street, Mount Pleasant, Castle Keep, Gargrave Place, Prospect Place, Tudor Gardens, Station Road, Windmill Gate, Clarke Drive Mews, and White Horse Mews complete or underway. We understand this puts pressure on local services and infrastructure, which often take a while to adapt to and catch up with demand, and that this is frustrating for residents.

House building is extremely effective in stimulating the economy, and new people do bring greater investment and growth in services and infrastructure. In terms of calculating the economic benefits of development, a study undertaken on behalf of the UK Contractors Group found that a £1 investment in construction results in £2.84 in terms of benefits to the wider economy.

Additionally, as it stands, our project will generate an estimated New Homes Bonus of about £1.4m and additional Council Tax of over £0.5m in the six years after completion. This is an important funding source which can be used by the Council to support specific infrastructure and other projects that will benefit Framlingham.

A fundamental part of any development proposal is making the case for sustainability (in terms of the economy, socially, and environmentally). As part of this we look carefully at local services and identify whether or not they can cope. For example, the Education Authority confirmed that typically 13 primary and secondary school places would be required as a result of the development; the School Infrastructure team at Suffolk County Council confirmed that there is this capacity within local schools. NHS Choices confirms that there is currently capacity, and new patients are being accepted, at Framlingham Surgery.

More detail is available in the Sustainability Appraisal submitted as part of our planning application.