St Helens site with permission for 1,200 homes sold

Land in St Helens, which has the potential to provide 1,200 new homes, has been sold for an undisclosed sum.

North East-based Banks Property has sold the 50-hectare residential regeneration site to Harworth Estates, from Rotherham.

The brownfield Moss Nook site in St Helens was previously used for various industrial purposes, including a former colliery, alkali works and pipeworks, and has been extensively tipped with a range of glassworks and other industrial wastes.

Banks Property, part of the Banks Group, secured planning permission for Moss Nook Urban Village to build 1,200 homes on the site in 2007.

Since then, Banks has consolidated land ownership and undertaken some large-scale remediation works, including the construction of a sustainable urban drainage system and preparations for new roads and infrastructure which will support new residential development.

Harworth Estates is now planning to develop a number of land parcels for sale to housebuilders, and is estimating that the site could take up to a decade to be fully developed.

Lewis Stokes, community relations manager at the Banks Group, said: “This sale clears the way for delivery of the Moss Nook Urban village on a key site in St Helens which should deliver a range of regeneration benefits including new homes, commercial development and enhanced green space for the local community.”