Handforth Garden Village

Cheshire East Council and MADE

We’re supporting Cheshire East Council and MADE Partnership to bring forward the delivery of Handforth Garden Village, one of the North West’s largest new communities. By coordinating planning, funding, governance and programme management into a single delivery programme, we’ve been the keystone between the public and private sector partners, helping ensure this complex, multi-partner project maintains momentum and achieves critical funding milestones.

Delivery

Garden village developments can often stall because of complexity.

Handforth Garden Village is a major new neighbourhood that will deliver around 1,500 homes, alongside a primary and secondary “through” school, employment space, community facilities and extensive green infrastructure. Planning permission was already secured when we were brought on board, but as is typical of complex, hybrid planning permissions like this, the consent needed to be amended to reflect the master developer delivery approach and address issues around deliverability.

With our understanding of planning, funding compliance and programme delivery challenges, we were well placed to coordinate the public and private partners involved and build a delivery strategy for this once-in-a-generation opportunity for Handforth.

Outcome

Major developments often lose momentum when the myriad of planning, funding, procurement and governance workstreams become disconnected and hit challenges. By providing strategic oversight across the programme, we’re keeping those workstreams aligned so the garden village continues to move towards delivery.

Our role allows project partners to focus on their individual roles, confident that planning, funding, governance and programme management are all working together rather than competing with one another.

As one of the North West’s flagship garden village developments, Handforth demonstrates the value of taking a joined-up approach to delivery. When planning, funding, governance and programme management are coordinated from the outset, complex projects like this are better able to maintain momentum and deliver lasting benefits for the communities they serve.

Complex projects need someone to join the dots. If you’re delivering a major development and want to maintain momentum from planning through to deliver, contact Suzanne (suzanne.asher@hiveland.co.uk)

More Projects

Working alongside Layer.studio and PLACED, we are supporting Bury Council and the Radcliffe Neighbourhood Board to prepare Radcliffe’s 10-Year Pride in Place Regeneration Plan, helping to shape a long-term regeneration vision rooted in local priorities, community engagement and evidence-led decision making.

The government’s new Pride in Place Programme represents a significant shift in how regeneration funding is delivered, placing communities much closer to the centre of decision making through locally led Neighbourhood Boards and longer-term place investment plans.

We secured £24m of Good Growth funding for the Heaton Group through a fiercely competitive process. Without this essential grant, the project simply couldn’t proceed. Acting as the keystone between key players at GMCA and Wigan Council, we coordinated a compelling funding submission that demonstrated the scheme’s transformational potential.

Town centre regeneration is a political priority across Greater Manchester, but delivery depends on making the numbers work. Cotton Works is designed to be the catalyst that unlocks wider investment in Wigan town centre. It demonstrates what’s possible when you align public sector ambition with private sector capability, creating places that actually work for local people. That’s what this funding achieves.