Leverhulme tries again with plans for 140 Wirral homes

The estate has resubmitted one of the eight Green Belt applications refused by Wirral Council in 2022, citing the peninsula’s lack of available sites for housing and a more favourable policy landscape as factors working in its favour.

Leverhulme Estate wants to build 140 homes – including 49 affordable properties – on 20 acres north of Milner Road on the edge of Heswall. The scheme would also feature a community park and orchard.

The development comprises 20 more homes than plans for the same site submitted in 2022. That project, along with seven other housing schemes totalling almost 800 homes that Leverhulme proposed on land it owned across Wirral, was rejected due to concerns about its impact on the Green Belt.

Leverhulme appealed all of the refusals but was knocked back. The Planning Inspectorate said overturning the rejections would undermine Wirral Council’s emerging local plan, which was going through the approvals process at the time. The High Court agreed.

Wirral was pursuing a local plan with no Green Belt release, claiming it could deliver the homes it needed on brownfield land.

Since then, Wirral’s annual housing target has increased, putting pressure on the Green Belt, and the Labour government has introduced the Grey Belt policy, which encourages local authorities to look favourably on planning applications for homes on what is essentially poor-quality Green Belt.

Based on recent analysis by Lichfields, Leverhulme claims Wirral’s current housing land supply position is three years – against a statutory target of five – a figure that could prove crucial if the revised plans end up at appeal. Leverhulme, which owns and manages almost 5,000 acres in Wirral, also claims the site meets the criteria for Grey Belt.

Pegasus is advising on planning matters. To learn more, search for reference number OUT/26/01443 on Wirral Council’s planning portal.