Developers have submitted plans to build nearly 700 homes on a former golf course in Salford. Housebuilders Bellway and Countryside acquired the old Brackley Golf Course in Little Hulton for £40m last year.
The housebuilders have now submitted initial proposals to construct 345 homes each on the 66-acre site. The two companies agreed to buy the land for £39.3m in November last year. But, in December the developers renegotiated the terms of the sale.
Salford council, which jointly owned the site off the M61, will still pocket £18.5m – the biggest single capital receipt in its history. A squatter had to removed from the site late last year to progress with the scheme.
READ MORE: Huge £40m sale agreed as plans for 700 homes on Salford golf course set to go ahead
The council’s share of the £40m sale price amounted was 47%, with the rest going to MHE Investments. The council was the freeholder of the land and MHE the leaseholder.
Once a colliery, the land was turned into a golf course in 1991 before it closed in 2016. Three years later, MHE were granted outline planning permission to build homes there.
Bellway and Countryside have lodged a reserved matters application for 690 homes across the former golf course. It comes after a squatter was removed from a building in Bulloughs Farm, which is part of the development site.
Deputy mayor John Merry approved amended terms of the sale which now includes the option for the authority to acquire up to 20 three-bedroom properties on the site. If the council does buy these homes, it could make sure they are affordable.
Planning permission to build 677 homes on the golf course was granted two years ago but there is currently no requirement for affordable housing on the site. A deal was initially struck in May 2020 with developer Countryside which had planned for around a third of the new properties to be affordable, but this agreement fell through when the company tried to renegotiate the price of the purchase.
Bellway has not factored affordable housing into its development plans, but has agreed to discuss the matter with the council once the sale is complete. According to a property and regeneration briefing report, the council can acquire some of the properties within the scheme under the amended terms.
It said: "Under the Collaboration Agreement, the Council can seek to secure a greater level of Affordable Housing to that within the outline consent, but the Council would be responsible for the costs of such provision."
The agreement also includes a condition which allows the council to buy back the land if Bellway does not build the homes on time, according to the report. The development would feature 36 flats, 76 two and 250 three-bed semi-detached houses, and a further 217 three and 111 four-bed detached dwellings.
