Nearly two thirds of the 250 homes going up off Harp Hill will be affordable: 53 social rent, 51 affordable rent, 54 shared ownership, with the first due this autumn.
Of the 250 homes being built at Oakley Farm on the eastern edge of Cheltenham, 158 will be affordable, the housing association Stonewater and the housebuilder Vistry have confirmed. That is 63 per cent of the scheme, and the first homes are due to be available from autumn 2026. (Vistry, 6 August 2026; Stonewater)
Stonewater’s own development page breaks the 158 down: 53 for social rent, 51 for affordable rent and 54 for shared ownership. The remaining 92 homes are for open market sale through Vistry. Construction started in November 2025.
One site, three names
If you have been trying to follow this scheme, the naming is part of the problem. Cheltenham Borough Council’s planning register files everything under Oakley Farm, Priors Road, GL52 5AQ. Vistry’s announcement calls it a development “off Harp Hill in Battledown”. Stonewater markets it simply as Battledown, Cheltenham. All three are the same site, and the vehicle access is from Harp Hill.
The mix is described slightly differently by each partner too. Stonewater lists one to four-bedroom houses, maisonettes and bungalows. Vistry’s release says Stonewater’s share will include one-bedroom apartments, one-bedroom bungalows and two to five-bedroom houses, with Vistry adding two to five-bedroom homes for sale.
Six years from application to front doors
The planning history on the council register is long. The outline application, 20/01069/OUT, for up to 250 dwellings with all matters reserved except the Harp Hill access, was received on 2 July 2020 and validated on 16 July 2020. A varied outline permission, 24/00251/CONDIT, was issued on 20 May 2024, adjusting the condition covering the Harp Hill access arrangements and road gradients. Reserved matters covering access, appearance, landscaping, layout and scale were approved under 23/01691/REM.
Since then the file has filled up with condition discharges rather than arguments: foul water drainage, street tree planting, ground levels, a site waste management plan, a site-wide energy scheme and a landscape and tree management scheme have all been signed off in the past year. A search of the register for Oakley Farm now returns 28 applications.
One is still open. A revised Construction Traffic Environmental Management Plan, reference 26/00959/DISCON, was received on 15 June 2026 and remains pending consideration. For anyone living on Harp Hill or Priors Road, that is the document that governs lorry routes, wheel washing and delivery hours, and it is still being settled while building continues.
What the scheme is paying for
Vistry says it will contribute over £5 million through the planning process towards local infrastructure and services. The company also says the layout keeps mature trees, including a prominent oak, adds public open space, play areas and new pedestrian access, and includes sustainable drainage. Highway work covers upgrades to Harp Hill and its junction.
Matthew Crucefix, group director of development at Stonewater, said the project would “help deliver essential affordable housing in Cheltenham, an area where open-market homes are often financially out of reach for customers”, and that the homes would come with “extensive outdoor spaces and a public art installation”.
Supriya Ray, regional managing director of Vistry Cotswolds, called it “a fantastic opportunity to deliver much-needed homes in Cheltenham, while investing in the local community and environment”.
What it means for you
The affordability gap is the reason the tenure split matters. The average Cheltenham home sold for £329,183 in May 2026, up 3.7 per cent in a year, and our Cheltenham house prices page shows how far that stretches across the borough. Social and affordable rents are set well below market levels, and shared ownership lets a buyer purchase a share and pay rent on the rest, so 158 homes of this kind arriving at once is a material change in local supply.
Two practical points. Neither Stonewater nor Vistry has published an allocations date, a rent level or a shared ownership price for this site, so treat any figure you see elsewhere with caution until one of them publishes it. And social and affordable rented homes are not let directly by the association here: they are normally allocated through the local authority housing register, so the council’s housing team is the route in, not the sales office.
Stonewater asks that enquiries about the site go to construction@stonewater.org. The planning file, including every condition discharge, is on the council’s public access register under Oakley Farm, and we cover new applications on our Cheltenham planning news page.
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