Harworth Group plc, a leading regenerator of land and property for development and investment, has sold 6.62 acres of land on behalf of a third-party to Bellway Homes in Hilton, Derbyshire – its first deal with the national housebuilder.
Harworth originally promoted the 6.65-acre greenfield site through South Derbyshire District Council’s Local Plan on behalf of the landowners following the signing of a Planning Performance Agreement (PPA) in March 2017. Consent for up to 45 units with associated public open space was secured by the company in May 2018, with a Section 106 agreement with the Council being signed by the end of the year. Pegasus Planning Group advised Harworth on the original planning application.
Following a competitive bidding process that generated multiple bids, Bellway was selected to take forward a development that will deliver 45 family homes over the next two years. Fisher German acted for Harworth on the land sale.
Hilton is Harworth’s second Planning Performance Agreement success in the Midlands. In June 2018, it secured outline consent for 400 residential plots on a 31.2-acre site in Market Warsop, Mansfield owned by The Trustees of the Warsop Estate. Harworth pursues Planning Promotion Agreements with a small number of landowners as a source of income for the business by incurring the cost and risk of promoting land through planning and then sharing some of the value gain, after first recovering its costs, when the land is sold.
This deal demonstrates that our approach and skill in securing planning permission on our own land can be readily transferred to land owned by third parties to provide a further source of income to Harworth. I look forward to us achieving further PPA successes across the North of England and the Midlands over the next few years.
Tim Love, Director of Central Services at Harworth Group plc
Completing this sale to Bellway just two years after we signed the original PPA showcases Harworth’s effectiveness in securing residential planning consents in the North Midlands and in bringing forward relevant new sites to volume housebuilders, contributing to Harworth’s strong track record in reducing the housing gap in the regions we work.
Joanne Neville, Planning Manager for Yorkshire & Central at Harworth Group plc