Habiko lodges plans for 342 Chester homes
Having secured approval for its first project in Warrington in May, the JV between Muse, PIC, and Homes England has submitted plans for an apartment scheme on Charterhall Drive close to the city’s train station.
Habiko, set up in 2024 to deliver 3,000 homes over the next 12 years, wants to deliver 342 one- and two-bed affordable flats on a site within the £120m City Place masterplan previously earmarked for offices.
Designed by Shedkm, the scheme comprises two apartment blocks rising to eight and 10 storeys.
The submission of plans follows a public consultation to shape the proposals held last autumn. Turley is advising on planning matters and Planit is the landscape lead. Design Fire Consultants, MD Landscape, and Proximity are also advising.
Ella Woodward, development manager at Habiko, said: “Bringing these homes forward, on behalf of Habiko, starts to bring our shared vision to life in Chester: delivering sustainable, affordable homes to communities.
“This is an important milestone in our journey to deliver 3,000 affordable, sustainable homes, and our plans have been shaped and refined over a period of many months to bring forward a proposal for Charterhall Drive that works for everybody.
“Here, we are supporting a vibrant residential community, building on the progress already made as part of the wider location’s redevelopment. By delivering high-quality, affordable homes, we are helping to meet the diverse needs of local residents and the wider community.”
Other Habiko developments in works that are awaiting planning approval include 240 homes in Warrington and 228 in Solihull. Habiko is also understood to be working up plans for around 300 homes in Liverpool.
To learn more about the scheme, search for reference number 26/01735/FUL on Cheshire West and Chester’s planning portal.
They now need to level that awful Charterhall House
By GetItBuilt!
That’s a substantial development. This should prompt repair or replacement of the road and pedestrian bridges over the rail lines east of the station, where desperate money saving has reduced the facility to a joke.
By WayFay
Strangeways has more elegance than this.
By YoureHavingALaugh
Developers and architects do love a brown box. No style or imagination required and minimum cost.
No balconies?
In February 2007, developers unsuccessfully applied for planning permission to demolish the Old Orleans pub (now Hickory’s) on the Groves and erect a glass-and-steel structure in its place, designed by the (some said) aptly-named architects Shed KM, designers of the above.
By Steve Howe
I am sorry for having to put this so bluntly – this development is as ugly as. Homes may be needed, but they do not have to look like this. No doubt that aside from aesthetics, the interior spaces will be too small and there is zero regard either for the need for an outdoor space such as a balcony. As in all things, one should not design anything that one would not be utterly delighted to live in or with oneself. Can the designers of this monstrosity say that would be true for them of this? Or that they would like to live in an environment or a whole series of themis the outlook? It looks like the projects in the US, and history shows precisely what happened to communities as a result. Brutalism as an architectural design should be consigned to the waste paper basket. Please adjust your thinking and look to the best of architecture for design ideas and redesign something better for the environment, the community and the people who live there.
By Fiona Cregan
This looks like something that would be proposed for Salford. Chester should be aiming higher for the quality of its townscape with the rich history that it has.
By Anonymous
Why do all Muse developments look just like this, so depressing
By Anonymous
Really needs some proper balconies included and some more depth/step in the elevations. Not great as currently proposed.
By Jim
@Fiona Cregan. If this was in the the US it would be a generic 5 over 1 with double loaded corridors, bizarre facade articulation with ticky-tacky cladding. Brick cladding is entirely appropriate for this location, but balconies is a miss. We have a national minimum space standard – I don’t know what you want to do about that because local authorities don’t have the discretion to require another.
By Rich X
I don’t think it suitable for Chester coz Chester is very historic town but those need build a new flat with like cream stone bricks with a balconies it look perfect for Chester because it very important for history sense 👍🏻
By G J Kitchener
@ June 25, 2026 at 2:48 pm
By Rich X
Good points. I think aesthetically it could still be way better though.
By Rye
@ rich June 25th at 14.48pm
Exactly you’re absolutely right 👍🏻
By G J Kitchener
Nice of them to take inspiration from the local vernacular and wonderful local buildings such as Charterhall House and Tower House! To think this is after months of refinement!! Goodness knows what it looked like before the months of refinement! This really is poor!
By Anon
I love the dishonest mock-ups that always have these buildings surrounded by trees and people socializing, rather than portraying the reality of another cheap block of flats jammed in next to other cheap blocks of flats, with no trees and the same atmosphere as an East German prison.
By John Smith