Glasgow approves £100m Wyndford housing regeneration

Wheatley Homes Glasgow has secured planning committee approval for its £100 million Wyndford regeneration in north Glasgow, clearing a major development milestone for 401 affordable homes, a new community centre and extensive improvements to the surrounding public realm.

Glasgow City Council’s Planning Applications Committee approved the development on 20 October under application 26/00340/FUL. The housing programme comprises 343 homes for social rent and 58 for mid-market rent, with construction expected to begin in 2027. The project follows the demolition of four residential towers during 2025, which created the main development area for the replacement housing.

The approved scheme includes one, two and three-bedroom flats, some designed for wheelchair accessibility, alongside three and four-bedroom houses. The mixture of accommodation is intended to provide more family housing than the former high-rise estate, which consisted predominantly of bedsits and one-bedroom flats. The homes will be arranged within a redesigned neighbourhood incorporating different building types, public spaces and circulation routes.

Although the redevelopment provides fewer individual dwellings than the demolished towers, the proposed housing mix was central to the council’s planning assessment. The former buildings contained approximately 600 flats, while the replacement development comprises 401 dwellings with a substantially greater proportion of larger properties. Planning material identifies around 899 bedrooms in the new scheme, reflecting the change in accommodation size and distribution.

The reduction in dwelling numbers was contested during the planning process. Residents and campaigners had previously argued for retention and refurbishment of the towers, raising concerns about the loss of existing housing and the environmental consequences of demolition. Wheatley maintained that redevelopment offered a better route to delivering the range of larger and accessible homes required in the area. The committee’s approval follows consideration of those competing positions rather than an uncontested demolition and replacement programme.

CCG (Scotland) is expected to deliver the construction programme for Wheatley in partnership with hub West Scotland, with ECD Architects responsible for the design. The contractor was previously identified as preferred tenderer, and its latest project information confirms its intended delivery role following the planning decision. The detailed programme will now have to be aligned with the conditions attached to the approval and any remaining preconstruction requirements.

The housing development will incorporate a new two-storey community centre containing a café, bookable rooms and accommodation for local activities. Landscaped areas, a children’s play park, seating and improved pedestrian and cycle routes are also included. The proposals seek to provide connections towards the River Kelvin and integrate the replacement housing with the surrounding Maryhill neighbourhood.

Delivering these external elements alongside several different residential building types will require coordinated civil engineering and construction sequencing. Site preparation, building foundations, drainage, utility connections and access routes must be planned around the phased completion of housing and community facilities. The approved development therefore involves substantial work beyond erecting the residential structures, with roads, paths and public spaces forming part of the overall site programme.

The replacement of the tower blocks also changes the engineering arrangement of the site. Where the previous development concentrated accommodation vertically within a small number of buildings, the new layout distributes homes across a wider collection of blocks and houses. That configuration influences the extent and positioning of foundations, underground services, access roads and landscaped areas, as well as the relationship between private and communal spaces.

Building performance forms another part of the proposals. Wheatley describes the replacement homes as energy efficient, and CCG has experience of delivering residential developments using a combination of site construction and offsite manufacturing. The latest Wyndford planning approval, however, does not itself establish that a particular construction system will be used for every building or provide independently verified energy performance figures for the finished homes.

The design and construction teams will need to coordinate insulation, airtightness, heating, ventilation and building services within the final specification. Their performance will depend on the continuity of the building envelope, the quality of installation and subsequent commissioning. Any claims about the development’s eventual energy consumption will require the completed technical specification and operational evidence rather than the planning approval alone.

Public realm delivery will also affect how the new neighbourhood functions. The location of pedestrian routes, the separation of vehicle movements and the provision of accessible connections are relevant to a scheme containing family accommodation, wheelchair accessible homes and shared community facilities. Drainage and landscape design must be incorporated into the civil works programme, particularly where new hard surfaces and planted areas replace the former estate layout.

Funding support is being provided through Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Government. Wheatley has also engaged residents through the tenant-led Wyndford Futures Focus Group, which has contributed to the development of the regeneration proposals. The group is expected to remain involved as the scheme progresses towards construction.

The programme includes a separate planning application for a football pitch. That proposal is not covered by the approval of the principal residential development and community centre, so its progress will depend on its own statutory determination. The distinction also affects the scope of works that can be treated as authorised under the current decision.

Wheatley’s current programme anticipates work beginning in 2027, while CCG has indicated that construction could start in spring of that year. The exact mobilisation date will depend on the remaining project preparations and planning requirements. The next development milestones will involve finalising the construction arrangements and progressing the approved housing and community facilities from the cleared site into the main building phase.