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Preston City Council says it remains committed to the regeneration of a rundown area on the edge of the city centre after the collapse of a deal involving a major high-rise development which lay at the heart of the plans.
It has emerged that the firm poised to deliver the Stoneygate Central scheme – to build 469 apartments on the former Dryden Mill site, off Manchester Road – has pulled the plug on its participation in the project.
Property news website Place North West has reported that city centre development specialist Belgravia has walked away from the 16-storey development – and has also abandoned its ambition to create Preston’s tallest skyscraper, the 21-floor Lofthaus tower, near Friargate North.
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The move does not affect the planning permission in place for the Stoneygate Central project, which could still be brought to life by another developer – and it is understood Stoneygate Living, the firm that secured approval for the proposal in March 2023, has now put it back on the market.
However, the question mark placed over the vision for the site, which was once home to a popular indoor car boot sale, is undoubtedly a blow to the city council’s broader regeneration plans for the Stoneygate area – not least because Belgravia says it has pulled out of the project after concluding it was financially unviable.
That is in spite of the scheme being exempted from the usual requirement on urban developments in Preston for 30 percent of the properties to fall into the discounted ‘affordable homes’ category. As the applicant for the scheme, Stoneygate Living successfully argued that the stipulation would have undermined the financial viability of the project.
That decision was reached by Preston City Council’s planning committee whose members gave the green light to a blueprint which, if it is ultimately fulfilled, will see the apartments developed across two separate buildings, totalling six blocks of differing heights.
The proposal was described at the time by Alban Cassidy, the agent for the application, as “a catalyst to start the ball rolling” on the regeneration of Stoneygate – acting as “both a landmark and gateway” into the long-neglected area.
Made up of 261 one-bedroomed, 204 two-bedroomed and four three-bedroomed apartments, the development, Mr. Cassidy suggested, could end up being taken on by a housing association – meaning many of the properties would be available for social rent, in spite of the affordable housing exemption. However, the Belgravia scheme appeared likely to have been an open market one, had it come to fruition.
It is more than four years since the city council incorporated into local planning policy the vision to turn Stoneygate – which sits on the eastern fringe of the city centre – into an “urban village”.
Since then a slew of applications have been submitted for a range of developments in that area, several of them high-rise. The most notable one to be completed is The Exchange, a 200-apartment, 16-storey project on Pole Street.
Others, however, are yet to get off the drawing board – including a ‘sloping’ 21-storey residential block on Church Row, close to the city’s bus station, which was approved in May 2020.
More recently, plans have been given the go-ahead for the conversion of the disused Guild Tower office block into 115 apartments, while last year, a proposal was passed to allow social landlord Onward Homes to build 380 properties on the former Horrocks Mill site, on Queen Street.
At the planning committee meeting at which the Stoneygate Central project was approved, committee member Harry Landless said he was wary of giving the green light to “yet another fantastic scheme – and then, three or four years down the line, nothing is happening [with it]”.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) about the lack of progress with the site 18 months later, Cllr Landless said he was “not surprised”.
“We’ve passed an awful lot of good schemes, but they’re very ambitious – and you can’t help [wondering whether the applicants] are really going to do them, or are they speculating?
“They’ve got the sites and they’re getting the planning permission in place, which I can understand, but then whoever is making the applications is trying to sell them on to the developers who are actually going to do the job – and the developers don’t seem to want to come forward and build them at the moment.
“I’d like to start seeing some of these developments happen – I’d feel more comfortable if people started making an effort to do [them],” Cllr Landless said.
Asked by the LDRS about the regeneration implications of Belgravia’s withdrawal from Stoneygate Central – and the financial reason underpinning it – Preston City Council’s cabinet member for planning and regulation Amber Afzal said: “We are unable to comment on individual schemes, but Stoneygate remains a strategic priority regeneration area for the city and good progress is being made on the delivery of the masterplan which is being driven by the Onwards Homes development plans.
“Positive conversations are also taking place with Homes England, exploring how we can work together to further deliver our City Living Strategy, which includes the phase two regeneration of Stoneygate and the station quarter.”
The station quarter project is a 15-year vision for the wholesale redevelopment of the area around Preston station, which would include the eventual demolition of Fishergate Shopping Centre, with new office, leisure and retail facilities being built in its place.
High-rise hopelessness
The withdrawal of Belgravia from the Lofthaus tower block scheme for 307 apartments, on Great Shaw Street, is the latest twist in a proposed development which dates back seven years.
In its original form, it was to be a 21-storey skyscraper when it was first given city council approval in 2017, to be built on land currently occupied by Foresters Hall.
Fast forward five years and the firm then behind the proposal, Providence Gate Group Holdings, sought permission to add another nine floors to the new building, which would have made it almost 100 metres high – eclipsing even than the 94-metre spire on St Walburge’s Church in the city.
However, the proposal was pulled just 24 hours before a decision was due to be made by Preston City Council’s planning committee whose members had been advised, by the authority’s planning officers, to reject the revised project.
The company claimed it had opted to super-size the scheme, because to build at the originally proposed height “would not be financially viable, as the construction costs would make it prohibitive”.
By March this year, the development – by now in the hands of Belgravia – was back before city planners, but now with a twist. The proposal then was to add a single extra floor to the 21 initially envisaged – while barely making any difference to the height. That was to be achieved by reducing the space between the floors of all the other storeys.
However, the city council never got the chance to have its say on the new blueprint, because the application was withdrawn before the authority had reached a decision.
Now that Belgravia has abandoned the project, it is unclear whether Lofthaus will ever become the most prominent feature on the Preston skyline.
‘No other choice’
Speaking to Place North West about Belgravia’s decision to walk away from the Stoneygate Central scheme – which it had rebranded Urban Village – and the Lofthaus project, Christopher Howell, head of family at the firm, said: “Recently, the market landscape has changed, with rising build costs, high interest rates, and ongoing regulatory changes.
“Despite employing best-in-class teams and working tirelessly for 12 months to make the schemes viable, a report from Savills showed a £24m deficit, ultimately forcing Belgravia’s
“Belgravia self-funded over £5m across the two development schemes, shouldering all costs rather than taking on external investment or off-plan sales.
“This decision to prioritise mitigating risk over generating revenue came at a significant financial cost to the company and reflects [our] commitment to ethical practices even at great personal cost.”
The LDRS approached Belgravia for further comment.
Both projects are still listed on Belgravia’s website, with Lofthaus having been earmarked for completion by the end of 2025 and third phase of Urban Village/Stoneygate Central by autumn 2026.
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