Miller Homes has approval for 215 homes by Wood's Farm, 75 of them affordable and 45 for social rent. Its next filing, on materials and parking, is open to comment until 15 October.
Wokingham Borough Council has approved the detailed plans for 215 homes on fields south of Wokingham, next to Wood’s Farm off Easthampstead Road. The builder is Miller Homes. Planning officers signed off the decision on Wednesday 16 September under delegated powers, so it never went to the planning committee (Wokingham Borough Council planning register, application 253142).
The homes sit on two plots known as parcels R7 and R13, in phase 2b of the South Wokingham Strategic Development Location. Outline permission for up to 1,434 homes across phase 2b was granted in July 2024, so the principle of building here was already settled. This application decided what the homes look like, how they are laid out and how tall they are (planning register, application 191068).
What has been approved
The officer’s report sets out the scheme (officer report and decision notice, application 253142):
- 215 homes: 170 houses and 45 flats in three blocks
- 75 affordable homes, which is 35% of the total
- 45 of those for social rent, 8 for affordable rent and 22 for shared ownership
- 140 homes for sale on the open market
- 430 parking spaces, 363 of them allocated to homes
- air source heat pumps in every home
- 12 homes built to the accessible and adaptable standard, all two-bedroom houses
- a park and garden, a play area and natural greenspace
Buildings can reach three storeys, up to 12.5 metres, along the northern edge of the site. They drop to two and a half storeys, up to 11.5 metres, along White Horse Ride.
The flats that changed
The affordable housing mix was reworked during the application. The report says the first version put every affordable-rent home in a house, while every social-rent home was a one-bedroom flat. Officers were concerned the affordable-rent houses would not be affordable enough.
The fix uses the 24-flat Block 1. Its eight ground-floor flats each have their own front door, so they can be let on a different tenure. Those eight become affordable rent, and the 16 flats above are social rent. The council’s housing team said the revised mix was acceptable.
| Home size | Social rent | Affordable rent | Shared ownership | Market | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| One-bedroom flat | 16 | 8 | 0 | 7 | 31 |
| Two-bedroom flat | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 14 |
| Two-bedroom house | 21 | 0 | 12 | 20 | 53 |
| Three-bedroom house | 7 | 0 | 6 | 73 | 86 |
| Four-bedroom house | 1 | 0 | 4 | 26 | 31 |
| Five-bedroom house | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6 |
| Total | 45 | 8 | 22 | 140 | 215 |
Source: officer report, application 253142, development information table.
Who objected, and why it made no difference
Crowthorne Parish Council objected. It cited the combined effect on local roads, which it called “already struggling”. Bracknell Forest Council’s highways team also objected, over missing traffic data and a weak cycle link to the east.
Officers answered the traffic points the same way. Traffic was assessed when outline permission was granted in 2024. Only appearance, landscaping, layout and scale were open this time. The cycle link was dealt with separately in the report.
Wokingham Without Parish Council did not object. It did raise a worry that community facilities would arrive too late for the first residents. The report says the council can only call for those facilities after the 300th home in phase 2b is occupied. That trigger was fixed in 2024.
One resident wrote in, from Waterloo Crescent. They asked for planting to cut road noise and headlight glare from the new distributor road. Wokingham Town Council and the ward councillors made no comment.
The road and the drainage come first
The South Wokingham Distributor Road is being built alongside. The stretch between Waterloo Road and Heathlands Road opened in May 2026 as White Horse Ride. The report expects the rest, through to Finchampstead Road, to open during 2027. See our roadworks and travel page for current closures.
Surface water from the site will drain into basins in the new Holme Park greenspace. The report says homes on parcel R7 will not be occupied until those basins and the roadside swale are finished. The decision notice also ties some conditions to the 100th and 200th homes.
What it means for you
- You can still comment on the next stage. Miller Homes filed the details for building materials and a parking management strategy on 23 September. Comments are open until 15 October (planning register, application 262239).
- No completion date has been published for these 215 homes. The report records that building started on the neighbouring parcel R10 in August 2025, with the first homes finished in April 2026.
- If you live on Waterloo Crescent, the report puts more than 90 metres between your homes and the nearest new houses, with a community orchard, open space and the railway line in between. The full report is on the council’s document viewer.
- For other schemes near you, see our Wokingham planning news page.
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