Taylor Wimpey lodges £37.5m resi plans for former Glen Dimplex factory

After more than a year of sitting vacant, the 235,100 sq ft manufacturing facility in Knowsley could be demolished to make way for a mix of 204 terraced, semi-detached, and detached houses.

Taylor Wimpey has lodged plans with Knowsley Council for the 14-acre site off Stoney Lane, with proposals including 68,000 sq ft of green infrastructure comprising the planting of 212 trees as well as shrubs, hedgerows, and wildflower meadows.

The overall scheme would represent at £37.5m investment by Taylor Wimpey during construction, according to a report by Turley Economics. It would also create 45 full-time jobs during the 4.5-year construction period.

The project would provide the former industrial site a new use, as well as help address what Taylor Wimpey argues is an inadequate five-year housing supply in Knowsley. The housebuilder’s planner, Asteer, put the current supply at only lasting 4.97 years.

Glen Dimplex shuttered the factory in 2024 and, despite marketing efforts, the site has failed to find a buyer in the meantime. This was due, in part, to the warehouse being viewed as obsolete, according to a CBRE report.

Issues included the building not having the required height for modern logistics, its layout being too bespoke, a lack of energy efficiency, and the presence of asbestos. Under Taylor Wimpey’s plans, the shed would be demolished.

Banners Gate is the architect for the Taylor Wimpey scheme in Knowsley. Credit: via planning documents

Of the 204 homes proposed by Taylor Wimpey, 31 would have two bedrooms, 107 would have three, and 66 would have four.

There would be space for 424 cars to park, with two spaces provided for the two- and three-bedroom homes. Most of the four-bedroom properties would have three spaces provided.

Access to the neighbourhood would be from Stoney Lane.

The housebuilder is seeking to use vacant building credits to meet the council’s affordable housing requirement. Should this be unacceptable, Taylor Wimpey has proposed including 20 affordable homes: five for shared ownership and 15 for affordable rent.

In addition to Asteer, CBRE, and Turley Economics, the project team includes architect Banners Gate, landscape architect PGLA, air quality consultant SLR, highways expert Eddisons, ecologist UES, and acoustics specialist Hepworth Acoustics.

You can learn more about the application by searching reference 25/00672/FUL on Knowsley Council’s planning portal.