Anwyl kicks off three-year Mere Grange build

The housebuilder has started work on 82 homes on a plot purchased from Network Space, opposite the developer’s 162,000 sq ft employment scheme in St Helens.

In what will be Anwyl’s debut project in St Helens, the housebuilder will deliver a mix of three and four-bedroom semi-detached and detached houses over nine acres.

Anwyl acquired the site earlier this year from Network Space; a full planning application for the site was put forward in 2018 and approved by St Helens Council in March this year.

The build is expected to take three years with the first homes available by the end of 2019.

It forms the housing element of the wider Mere Grange site which includes a mix of employment space and homes; the employment element is being developed by Network Space.

The first £7m speculative scheme at Mere Grange provided 90,500 sq ft of industrial space across four units, followed by the construction of a 51,800 sq ft unit, which Network Space pre-let to laundry firm Synergy LMS.

Earlier this month, Caddick secured a £1.5m deal to build a 20,000 sq ft industrial unit at Mere Grange, the third scheme the contractor has secured at the site.

The scheme is being developed in association with Homes England, St Helens Council and Liverpool City Region Combined Regional Authority.

Joe Burnett, development director at Network Space, said: “We are starting to see a resurgence in mixed use schemes, as uses once seen as conflicting, are now considered complementary and sustainable.

“Anwyl Homes’ development is the final piece of the jigsaw for the regeneration of the wider Mere Grange site following Network Space’s successful delivery of 162,000 sq ft of employment space over the last 12 months. We are delighted by the progress made since we sold the residential site to Anwyl Homes earlier this year and look forward to Mere Grange becoming a place where people can live as well as work.”