IN Brief:
- Wigan Council has entered an exclusivity agreement with Persimmon Homes over the 59-acre Westwood Park development opportunity.
- The proposed 450 homes would reuse former power station land alongside environmental, access, and employment considerations set out in council guidance.
- The previous mixed-use outline consent has lapsed; the sale, masterplan, and required planning permission remain future milestones.
Persimmon Homes has agreed an exclusivity period with Wigan Council over Westwood Park, moving forward a proposed residential development on the former power station site south of the town centre. Its North West business is preparing plans for about 450 homes on two parcels marketed together as a 59-acre opportunity. Exclusivity allows further negotiation and design work with the selected housebuilder, but it is not evidence that the land has been transferred, a planning application approved, or a construction contract placed.
Westwood power station ceased operating in 1986, leaving a substantial area of previously developed land that has featured in the borough’s regeneration planning for many years. Wigan Council marketed the land for sale in 2025, with Parkinson Real Estate advising the council and minority landowner Greenbank Partnerships. The current agreement follows that disposal process. The agreed price and detailed commercial terms have not been disclosed, and the proposed housing number remains a development ambition rather than an approved capacity.
Westwood Park is served by the A49 link road, which opened in 2020 and improved connections around the former power station land. Road access increases the potential for development, but the site’s future layout still has to provide safe local junctions, pedestrian and cycling routes, drainage, service connections, and access to adjoining uses. Wigan’s guidance places particular weight on links between the new neighbourhood, town centre, existing communities, and the nearby landscape rather than treating the land as an isolated housing estate.
The council’s Westwood Park Planning Framework describes a mixed-use location accommodating homes, affordable housing, and new employment space, supported by green infrastructure and public routes. The framework covers a planning study area of approximately 28 hectares, while the current marketing description refers to two parcels totalling 59 acres. Those areas should not automatically be treated as identical development boundaries. Persimmon has not published a detailed land-use plan showing which sections would accommodate housing, employment, landscape, or infrastructure.
An outline permission granted in 2015 anticipated up to 430 dwellings alongside employment facilities, a local centre, and a visitor centre for the Wigan Flashes. That permission has expired. The 450-home figure now associated with Persimmon is a prospective capacity, not a modest amendment to a live consent. Detailed layouts, environmental evidence, and the appropriate planning applications will have to be prepared before any homes can proceed to construction. The current agreement does not re-activate the former approval.
The surrounding landscape is another significant project constraint. Westwood Park adjoins Westwood Flash and the wider Wigan Flashes area, which the council’s planning guidance identifies as an important natural setting for development. The framework seeks improved green connections towards the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the surrounding countryside. It also highlights the need for sensitive treatment of wildlife interests and access routes. The council has promoted the prospect of creating new habitats alongside housing, but no biodiversity design, quantified net gain, or approved habitat management scheme has yet been published for the proposed Persimmon development.
Only part of an overall brownfield site can typically be used for housing plots once the road network, drainage measures, landscape, and retained or new employment areas are accounted for. Wigan Council has also linked the opportunity to the creation of wildlife habitats, while its planning framework calls for better access towards the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and Wigan Flashes. The masterplan will need to reconcile these objectives with the proposed housing number, rather than assume every acre can be built on. No approved habitat plan, affordable housing percentage, or final density has been announced.
The council’s January 2026 Cabinet decision authorised a proposed land disposal to a preferred bidder, subject to statutory procedures, detailed commercial terms, and a period of exclusivity. The October identification of Persimmon makes the selected developer public and gives the parties a route to the next stage, but Cabinet’s earlier authorisation was not itself a completed sale. Parkinson Real Estate advised Wigan Council and minority landowner Greenbank Partnerships on the marketing process. Neither the transaction value nor the acquisition completion date has been disclosed.
Persimmon’s next substantive task is a scheme that can be tested against Wigan’s land-use, transport, and environmental expectations. The council and housebuilder have spoken of new homes, employment, and brownfield regeneration, but the physical delivery programme remains undetermined. A completed land agreement and a new planning submission will establish more than the present exclusivity announcement about what can actually be built at Westwood Park.
