First look at how Halifax apartment complex on car park site

Key approval for funding totalling almost £1.5 million for schemes including bringing around 400 new homes to Halifax town centre is sought from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority on Monday.

WYCA's Investment Committee will consider the bid to take the Halifax Living project forward.

Case papers for the homes schemes, at Cow Green and Halifax’s Eastern Gateway including the Cripplegate area, will be considered with the committee asked to approve £764,000 for phase one of the programme.

They are also asked to agree in principle to provide £797,000 to fund remediation works at another major Halifax scheme at Beech Hill which will then be considered as a separate business case at a later date.

Around £714,000 of the Halifax Living cash will be used to allow preparation of the Cow Green site – formerly one of Halifax’s major car parks and still used for parking since its demolition in 2016 – by the new Council Local Development Company to develop it for around 100 one and two-bedroom apartments by May 2021 with at least 30 per cent expected to be affordable homes.

The CDLC has been set up by the council with the aim of the authority building new homes for the first time in a decade.

Calderdale Council’s Cabinet member for Planning, Housing and Environment, Councillor Daniel Sutherland, said the programme showed ambition and illustrated growing confidence in the town with developer interest driven by The Piece Hall scheme.

“While plans for Cow Green are at a relatively early feasibility stage, they do illustrate the scale of our ambition for Halifax, and the growing confidence in the town,” he said.

“The Piece Hall is driving developer interest in Halifax.

“The recent start on the regeneration project at nearby Martin’s Mill illustrates the potential for residential market investment.”

Around £50,000 will fund feasability studies and land surveys for the Eastern Gateway sites and produce recommendations as to which sites can be taken forward but with indications that up to 300 homes and some jobs could result.

In summary, the business case being put forward is that the Halifax Living programme aims to deliver homes within easy walking distance of Halifax town centre, addressing a well-established demand for more housing and addressing market failure by opening up and reusing “brownfield” sites.

Investing in infrastructure will bring substantial private investment and with the CDLC in place detailed plans are already been prepared, and the committee is asked to recommend to the authority that it releases the cash.