North Londonshire sells 10 homes at Prior's Hall

Developers say two households a week are moving into Prior's Hall

A marketing campaign which branded North Northamptonshire as North Londonshire resulted in 10 houses being sold on a flagship housing development in Corby.

The £660,000 campaign, which ran during 2010, has now ended.

A total of 94 houses are occupied at Prior's Hall Park.

Daniel Polak, the development's commercial project manager, said 10 of them had been sold due to the North Londonshire campaign.

"Although 10 houses have been sold and that's a direct return on investment, the amount of awareness that was created by the campaign is unfathomable," he said.

Mr Polak said they were pleased with the overall interest in Northamptonshire raised by the campaign.

Growing population

Prior's Hall Park, to the north-east of Corby, has planning permission for 5,100 houses. The developers anticipate that in 15 years it could have a population of 12,500.

On Saturday, a party was held to mark the first anniversary of the first residents moving in.

The North Londonshire marketing campaign was designed to attract more people from London to Corby, Kettering, Wellingborough and Rushden.

There are no statistics for how many people have moved to other parts of North Northamptonshire because of the campaign.

The campaign was originally meant to run for three years at a cost of £1.3m, but was reduced to one year because of the economic slowdown.

Some local people objected to the North Northamptonshire concept. A Facebook group was set up called "Northamptonshire is NOT North Londonshire".

The North Northants Development Company said the North Londonshire campaign was a success, producing media coverage which would have cost £300,000 to buy through advertising.