According to the Land Registry, a Grainger Plc company (BPT Limited) acquired in January 2002 the 130 acres of land at Long Strops, as well as a parcel of woodland on the West side of Bell Lane (South of Glanville Place and next to Foxhall Stadium). The land BPT Limited own includes the former Radar Station (Wireless Telegraphy Station) which can be accessed from Foxhall Road.

Grainger Plc are a £billion+ company that focus on property investment (including identifying and purchasing land with potential development, although carry out little development themselves). Grainger Plc had, according to their website acquired the130 acres at Long Strops by 2003.

In 2007 Grainger Plc put a proposal forward to the Suffolk Coastal District Council for circa 1,300 homes on the site of 130 acres (which includes the 60 acres Persimmon want to develop per below) that to the South of the bridleway was to stretch all the way across from Dobbs Lane to Bell Lane.

In October 2008 the District Council published their decision preferring the proposal by BT at Adastral Park which has since experienced delays. Work was initially expected to start at Adastral Park in 2011.

In November 2009 representation was submitted to the Council on behalf of Grainger plc in response to the Council’s revised housing distribution to be delivered through its Core Strategy to 2025. This sets out a reduced scale Long Strops plan (down from 130 acres to 60 acres) as an alternative or contingency or as earlier availability to the Council’s preferred option of developing houses at Adastral Park. Specifically it states:

‘In light of the failing 5 year land supply within the IPA, the Council has raised the issue of the potential need to release land early in the Plan period, and that this may not necessarily be east of the A12 (Para 5.14, Cabinet Paper 15th October 2009). Such a strategy would not prejudice the long term deliver of a new community on land south and south east of Adastral Park, but would ensure the Council adopts a flexible approach to meeting its housing needs. Appended to this representation is a Vision Document and Landscape and Visual Baseline Report for land immediately abutting Grange Farm, which demonstrates the ability of land to come forward early in the Plan period along side that proposed at Adastral Park to ensure delivery of the Council’s housing need and maintain a 5 year land supply. The document and high level masterplan demonstrates the ability to deliver circa 280 to 300 dwellings on land free from constraints, and provide a development that complements the recreational and open space facilities on the southern fringe of Grange Farm’. On part 6.4 of the document is a copy of the plan.

On 24 September 2012 BPT Ltd granted the housebuilder Persimmon Homes Ltd an option to purchase the 60 acre site at Long Strops. On 31 January 2013, Persimmon Homes wrote to some of the local residents on Grange Farm to inform them that they were intending to submit a planning application for 300 homes on a 60 acre site on Long Strops and invited them to an exhibition on 6 February 2013.

The February 2013 proposal by Persimmon Homes is for 300 houses on a 60 acre section of Long Strops, South of the bridleway that runs across the Southern boundary of Grange Farm, with proposed access at Dobbs Lane and also by an extension of the Millennium Way road across the bridleway into Long Strops.