ONE of the UK’s largest insurance firms has bought 78 acres of land in Oxfordshire to build a housing estate.

Legal & General bought the site in Shrivenham, near Faringdon, after it won outline planning permission for 515 new homes.

It is the third major site being brought forward by the firm’s housebuilding arm, Legal & General Homes, bringing its housing pipeline to more than 3,000 new homes.

Construction of the first homes is due to start at the end of next year and the company said the site is large enough ‘to provide a full range of housing options, from one-bed apartments to four-bed detached family homes’.

Of the 515 total, 180 of the homes will be affordable housing and Legal & General said it would ‘look to use modular construction from its factory in Leeds for this element of the site’. The company added: “By using traditional building techniques alongside modular construction, the team will be able to accelerate delivery on the ground.”

Legal & General Homes CEO James Lidgate said: “As well as addressing the chronic shortfall of housing in the UK, Legal & General Homes is looking to regenerate the UK’s landscape for the better and build vibrant communities where people want to live, such as this sought after location in Oxfordshire.

“We want to challenge perceptions of new homes by delivering a product that surpasses buildings of the past in terms of quality, efficiency and comfort.”