Essex County Council is set to sell the 88-acre site at Rainham Lodge Farm in Upminster to major house builder Taylor Wimpey.
The council’s plans to sell the land comes four years after it evicted the family that had been farming there for more than a century.
The county council has said the sale of the freehold will allow for future development and investment of the site, subject to the grant of planning permission.
It adds: “This decision proposes that we maximise the potential for income from land which Essex County Council owns to create a capital receipt for reinvestment into services we deliver to residents.”
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It says that while any potential for development is currently highly speculative, there is an element of long-term hope for “strategic scale residential development” subject to the green belt boundaries being relaxed.
Essex County Council said: “If the buyer were to secure planning permission for a change of use and/or development of the land, there would be new housing, contributions to infrastructure, and provision of environmental enhancements.”
If Taylor Wimpey wanted to build homes on the site, it would require planning permission from Havering Council.
A Taylor Wimpey spokesperson said: “Any potential purchase of Rainham Lodge Farm is still subject to board approval and legal processes. We are unable to comment further at this time.”
The land lies next to a site subject to a planning application from Brett Aggregates. If accepted, it could be turned into an extraction site for two million tonnes of sand and gravel.
The Recorder has previously reported that more than 470 objections to the application have been made by concerned residents.
Dagenham and Rainham MP Margaret Mullane, said the plan would see significant increases of HGVs travelling between Rainham Lodge Farm and Launders Lane, further adding to the issues already faced by the community in this area.
In a letter of objection, she said: “Given the history of this particular area and the ongoing potential for a public health crisis due to poor air quality, I urge Havering Council to consider this application in full context of its connotations.”
Brett did not previously respond to a request for comment.
