Banks Property sells Merseyside regeneration scheme to Rotherham firm

Durham’s Banks Property has sold a 50-hectare residential regeneration site in the North West to Harworth Estates for an undisclosed fee.

The ‘brown field’ Moss Nook site in St Helens was previously used for various industrial purposes, including a former colliery, alkali works and pipeworks, and has been tipped with various 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.

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.”

Since 2007, 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 to support new residential development.

Harworth Estates is now planning to develop more land parcels for sale to housebuilders, and is estimating that the site could take up to 10 years to be fully developed.