Swindon developed from a small railway town of fewer than 2,500 people in 1837 to a town of approximately 160,000 now. The growth has been especially rapid after World War two, because of the improvements in transport infrastructure making Swindon suitable for commuting to London or Bristol. More information on how Swindon developed.

In recent years the ‘Regional Spatial Strategy’ has been used to provide targets for the number of new houses to be built in an area. Swindon was identified as need to build 36,000 new homes to satisfy demand in our area. The RRS is in the process of being scrapped by the current government, but Swindon still needs to provide 24-28,000 new homes over the next twenty year period to allow for continued economic growth, according to Council officers and elected Councillors. See this document for more details

These houses have to be built somewhere. To work out where is the most suitable area of land the council has been conducting studies to the parcels of land surrounding Swindon. In the meantime, companies that want to build these houses, like Crest Nicholson who own the Tadpole Farm site, have been speculatively purchasing this land.
See this document for more details

Running concurrent to this, Swindon Council is in the process of drafting a document called the Core Strategy, which is a document outlining how the planners will respond to the need for more housing and other infrastructure concerns. This document was consulted upon in 2009, but is about to enter a new period of consultation, March and April 2010 to allow for alteration made after the scrapping of the RSS. See the draft document here.

Crest Nicholson are keen to consult with local communities, and are aiming to pre-empt the requirements of the Localism Bill (which is not yet passed) by conducting two round of public consultation before submitting a formal planning application for the site.