West Lancs-owned development arm receives glowing independent review
Tawd Valley Developments has provided “clear” value for money and should be retained, according to a report compiled by Mickledore, which was commissioned to evaluate the effectiveness of the organisation over the last eight years.
West Lancashire Council set up TVD in 2018 to deliver homes. It has done just that, building 155 units for £25.56m, an average of £164,872 per home, the report states.
Mickledore concluded that the company “has been a successful intervention” and that TVD can do things the council itself simply cannot. This includes securing significant levels of grant – £6.12m across seven schemes – providing a broader range of tenures, and generating a pre-tax interest margin for the General Revenue Account.
“Each of these [benefits] would be lost or materially diminished if the company did not exist,” Mickledore said.
The independent review also said TVD, which is leading on the regeneration of Skelmersdale town centre, could prove crucial to ongoing housing delivery amid Lancashire’s changing governance arrangements and that bringing its functions in house would be “a retrograde step”.
There are plans, which are currently on pause, to dissolve the 15 local authorities and create four unitary authorities. Along with Chorley and South Ribble, West Lancs would be part of the South Lancashire Council.
“TVD’s position here is a strength,” Mickledore said. “It offers the successor authority an accredited, operational and grant-capable delivery vehicle at precisely the point when a new unitary’s own structures will still be bedding in.”
Other key achievements highlighted by the report include:
- The £14.2m 45-unit industrial development at J4 of the M58, now nearing completion
- £11.5m in gross value added for the borough
- Generation of more than £1m cash income to its shareholder, West Lancashire Council
- An overhead per unit of £15,575 – fifth out of eleven vehicles benchmarked in 2024
- Played an “instrumental” role in securing £20m of Pride in Place funding for Digmoor.
Mark Kitts is TVD’s MD. Credit: PNW
“This is a pleasing and positive set of outcomes that shows we have delivered what we set out to do in a highly cost-effective way,” said Mark Kitts, managing director of TVD.
“We are proud of what we achieved, particularly working in a highly volatile construction market where we have maintained cost discipline with no completed scheme exceeding its approved budget.
“Not only have we generated profit in each of the last six years of operation, we’ve been able to utilise our expertise, knowledge and relationships to bring more than £26m of additional funding into the borough and deliver significant social value.”
The review into TVD’s effectiveness was called earlier in 2026 following a shift in West Lancs’ political make-up.
Since May, the council has been run by a coalition between the Conservatives, who have 12 seats, and the Our West Lancashire independent group, which has 11. The review came less than a year after the previous Labour-led administration signed off a new business case that set out a target of 741 homes by 2032.
The report, which will be considered by councillors, states that “TVD has done what it was established to do…on a scale and at a pace the council would have been unlikely to achieve through its own delivery routes”.
