300 Homes Within a Union Mile – Shortlisted for the Davidson Prize 2025!

We’re thrilled to share that the “300 Homes Within a Union Mile” project has been shortlisted for the Davidson Prize 2025  and we couldn’t be prouder to be part of it!

This visionary project is a collaboration between Clifton Emery, our fantastic tenants, along with Plymouth Energy Community, our neighbours Nudge Community Builders, and us here at Millfields Trust. Thank you to everyone who voted and supported this incredible project!

What is the Davidson Prize?

The Davidson Prize 2025 focuses on bold, inventive solutions to help meet the UK’s ambitious target of building 1.5 million new homes. The challenge? To create housing that strengthens existing communities, delivers environmental efficiency, and builds with people and places at the heart of the process.

“300 Homes Within a Union Mile” sets out a practical and replicable model for placing new homes sensitively and strategically into the life, rhythm, and character of Union Street. Rather than focusing on large-scale redevelopment, the approach introduces many small interventions that collectively strengthen the whole.

Macro-Placemaking

The vision makes the national housing challenge feel local, relatable, and achievable. By delivering smaller, high-quality pockets of homes across a range of underused opportunity sites, we can help communities grow in ways that feel organic, sustainable, and rooted in place.

These new homes are imagined within the existing energy of the high street among makers, studios, cafes, schools, shops, nurseries, and community venues. It’s about maintaining the texture of everyday life while strengthening it with housing that nurtures resilience and belonging.

Micro-Homemaking

Tomorrow’s homes must do more than shelter, they must support, uplift, and connect. Designed by the community, for the community, these homes will be rented in perpetuity by trusted local stewards, Nudge and Millfields Trust, ensuring long-term care and affordability.

Built off-site using a 600mm modular grid, these energy-efficient homes are replicable and future-ready. They offer a balance of private comfort and shared space, including lounges, outdoor gardens, communal kitchens, food-growing areas, and more. These are co-living environments, not bound by rigid space standards, but crafted for well-being, safety, and legacy.

This project represents everything we believe in at Millfields Trust: collaboration, innovation, and community-led development that leaves a lasting legacy.

We’re incredibly proud to be working alongside partners who care so deeply about people and place. And being shortlisted for the Davidson Prize only strengthens our commitment to making this vision a reality.

Stay tuned for more updates as the final decision approaches and once again, thank you for supporting this journey.