Kingsmere forms a large strategic greenfield site covering a substantial portion of the town of Bicester. The site is phased over numerous parcels developed by different developers and shared between two Housing Associations, both of which have appointed calfordseaden as Employer’s Agent, Cost Consultant and Clerk of Works.

This case study refers to the Paradigm Housing Group parcels, namely parcels 3, 4, B and E, amounting to a total of 177 units. These units formed the Section 106 obligations of the Developers, albeit were procured in accordance with the Kingsmere Framework, which included a predetermined arrangement for a JCT 2011 Design and Build Contract.

A predetermined set of Employer’s Requirements were also covered by the Kingsmere Framework, and we worked alongside each individual Developer to run through the specification and agree any adjustments, both in terms of Developers adjustment requests, as well as additional items required by the HA’s.

CSH3 formed part of the requirements, and this was mostly met via a building fabric solution, albeit some parts of the site also incorporated use of PV panels. Contamination was minimal, other than a few hotspots being present across the overall site for monitoring as the works progressed.

A Lessons Learnt Register was used given the long term nature of the scheme and to feed into the various early discussions on each phase to ensure that experiences from previous parcels were shared for the benefit of all parties. Likewise reference back to the original Kingsmere Framework was required throughout the whole process to ensure that the design principles set out within the original planning process were taken through by Developers as opposed to being watered down by their standard house types. This resulted in the use of interesting local materials, such as stonework, as well as a high quality landscaping design.

Many of the Developers were unfamiliar with the use of a JCT Design and Build Contract, given that bespoke development agreements are more common for Section 106 projects. This resulted in us having to ensure we took each Developer through the various processes and clauses within the document to ensure that they understood how the project would be managed.

Given the long duration of the overall scheme, we have worked alongside both HA clients to identify required changes in terms of internal design expectations, as well as HCA reporting requirements etc. Therefore each parcel has to a certain extent been fine tuned as we have moved through the programme to ensure each individual parcel contract is relevant to requirements at that time.

This scheme was a finalist in the ‘Mixed Use Development’ category at the British Homes Awards 2021, and highly commended in the ‘Award for Best Housing Development’ at the OxProp 2019 Awards.