Building halted by housing company after foundation issues at Priors Hall in Corby

The affected homes are at phase two of David Wilson Homes’ The Gateway development at the 5,100-home estate.

Some of Priors Hall is built on backfilled land which was used for quarrying for Corby steelworks – it is an old quarry pond which appears to be causing the issues.

Phase two of the Gateway, off Arnold Drive, is due to have about 60 four and five-bedroom houses when it is complete.

David Wilson Homes declined to reveal how many buyers have been affected by the issue but one vendor told how she had her purchase cancelled just before exchanging contracts on her luxury home.

The news comes just a few weeks after BeLa Partnerships, which owns the whole site, went into administration.

Buyer Lisa Reid put in an offer and paid a deposit for a beautiful £357,000, four-bedroomed house of her dreams on the edge of phase two of The Gateway development in April this year.

But in June, just days before exchange, self-employed Lisa was told of a delay because of land issues.

Although she was told her plot wasn’t affected, the sale was delayed until October.

Then, three weeks before exchange, Sunday Times Housebuilder of the Year David Wilson Homes admitted that all housing reservations had been cancelled and the sale was stopped.

She said: “I’m just glad I hadn’t exchanged as I was due to put my things into storage and finalise my sale and wait for my new one to be built.

“They have had me hanging on months saying it was a land issue but my plot wasn’t affected.

“All this delay has also caused massive issues and stress in the sale of my property which is now unlikely to go ahead because of this.

“DWH still won’t tell me why they have pulled out of the sale.”

Lisa was hundreds of pounds out of pocket due to the fees she had forked out and the hours she had spent on the sale and had to call on the help of Corby MP Tom Pursglove to get her money back.

A spokesman on behalf of David Wilson Homes South Midlands said: “During the course of building the next phase of homes we have recently discovered potential foundation issues.

“This area of the site is directly above what was a pond at the bottom of an old quarry.

“We need to investigate this further, so as a precautionary measure we have temporarily suspended any further building on this part of the site.”

Permission for houses on that parcel of land, known in technical documents as parcel R14c, was granted by Corby Council in November 2014.

There was no mention of potential land issues in the permission notice.

If you’ve been affected by the problems at Priors Hall, please email [email protected].