The first of 20 new council homes at Tournament Fields, Warwick, is now council-owned: solar panels, heat pumps, and lettings via HomeChoice over six months.

Warwick District Council has taken ownership of the first of 20 new council homes on Taylor Wimpey’s Tournament Fields development in Warwick. The council announced the handover on 2 October and says the rest will transfer “in phases over the next six months”.

The homes range from one-bedroom maisonettes to four-bedroom family houses. Each has photovoltaic solar panels and an air source heat pump, and the council says the scheme is the first delivered to the standard in its Net Zero Carbon Development Plan Document.

What is being built and where

The homes sit within a larger private development. Warwick District Council granted permission in November 2024 for 67 dwellings on land at Goggbridge Lane, off Hampton Road, under application W/23/0824. The site is signed as Tournament Park, next to the Tournament Fields business park on the south-west edge of Warwick.

The 20 council homes are the affordable share of that scheme. Once transferred, the council says they will be let as:

  • social rent
  • affordable rent
  • shared ownership

All three go through the council’s HomeChoice register rather than a developer’s sales office.

Why the heat pumps matter

The council adopted its Net Zero Carbon Development Plan Document on 15 May 2024. It is part of the district’s development plan, so new housing schemes have to meet its energy standards, and the council’s news item of April 2024 said the requirements were already being given “significant weight” in decisions before then. Tournament Fields is the first scheme the council has taken homes from that was designed to it from the start.

Councillor Jessica Melrose, the council’s portfolio holder for housing, said the homes “will give more local people and families the chance to put down roots in affordable, comfortable homes that are designed for the future”, and that the one- and two-bedroom rented properties “are most needed”.

Councillor Chris King, portfolio holder for place, said delivering affordable homes to the net zero standard “demonstrates that tackling housing need and responding to the climate emergency can go hand in hand”.

What it means for you

  • If you are on the HomeChoice register, these homes will be advertised through it as each phase transfers, over roughly the next six months. Keep your application current, as a lapsed or incomplete registration cannot bid.
  • If you are not registered, the council’s guide to applying for social housing sets out the rules. You need a local connection to Warwick district, and the council says households with savings above £16,000 or income above £50,000 a year are unlikely to qualify. Supporting documents must follow within 28 days of starting an application.
  • If you are interested in shared ownership, the council has not yet said how many of the 20 homes will be offered that way or at what share. Its statement does not give the split; we will update this page when it is published.

The council’s wider housing stock, and how council tax is set for new homes, is covered on our council tax bands page.