Stalybridge housing scheme moves into demolition

AJ Kelly & Co has been appointed to carry out demolition works at Stalybridge West, moving a consented 102-home affordable housing scheme beside the town’s railway and bus stations into physical site preparation.

Bankfoot APAM, acting as development manager for the Greater Manchester Pension Fund, confirmed the appointment on 19 August. Full planning consent followed completion of the Section 106 agreement in June, clearing the way for a first residential phase comprising 44 townhouses and 58 apartments.

The one-, two-, and three-bedroom homes are intended to be delivered as affordable housing at mid-market rent levels. Current project reporting places the gross development value at £18.5 million for the scheme, which occupies a brownfield site close to the town centre and major public transport links.

AJ Kelly specialises in demolition, asbestos removal, and remediation, giving the project team a single enabling contractor for activities likely to determine the condition in which the site is handed to the main residential build.

Demolition converts consent into a buildable site

Stalybridge West occupies land that has remained underused and fragmented despite its location beside the railway station. Earlier project material described a former industrial area containing surface parking and existing structures, with redevelopment intended to reconnect the site more effectively to the town centre and surrounding neighbourhoods.

That setting makes demolition more than a clearance exercise. Existing foundations, buried services, asbestos, variable ground, access constraints, and neighbouring transport infrastructure all have to be understood before the housing programme can establish reliable levels, drainage, foundations, and site logistics.

The scheme’s proximity to live rail and bus operations also narrows the margin for poorly planned movements. Demolition plant, muck-away vehicles, deliveries, temporary fencing, dust control, and noise have to be managed while the surrounding transport network remains active, and later residential construction will inherit many of the same access constraints.

Project consultation material set out 3,000 sq m of public realm, a riverside green corridor, improved walking and cycling connections, 120 secure cycle spaces, 90 trees, and 12 electric-vehicle charging points. It also identified a minimum EPC B target and 209 sq m of solar panels, giving the later construction team a defined sustainability and public-realm brief alongside the 102 homes.

Those commitments will be tested as the development moves from planning material into detailed delivery. Public realm, drainage, landscaping, energy measures, and cycle infrastructure consume space and budget, and brownfield schemes are particularly exposed to value-engineering pressure if demolition or ground conditions uncover costs that were not fully visible at consent stage.

Affordable tenure tightens the viability equation

All 102 homes are planned as affordable accommodation, with the development aimed at young families, key workers, and younger professionals. The tenure gives the project a clear social purpose, but it also reduces the ability to use higher private-sale values to absorb unexpected construction costs, increasing the importance of cost certainty through the enabling and main works packages.

The scheme is tied into wider regeneration activity in Stalybridge. Town-centre, transport, and public-realm investment creates a broader delivery context around the housing site, while Stalybridge West occupies one of the most prominent development locations beside the town’s principal transport interchange.

Bankfoot APAM’s earlier consultation work estimated 184 construction jobs during the build and set an ambition for 10% of project expenditure to go through local suppliers. Those figures remain project targets rather than completed outcomes, but the demolition contract is the point at which local procurement and employment commitments can begin translating into actual packages.

The development team has moved through several formal stages during 2026. The project received a minded-to-grant resolution in April, the Section 106 agreement was completed on 24 June, and full consent followed before AJ Kelly’s demolition appointment was announced on 19 August.

For the Greater Manchester Pension Fund, the project combines investment with an affordable-housing strategy. For the construction team, the immediate task is more prosaic: clear a constrained site safely, establish what lies beneath it, and hand over conditions that allow the residential programme to progress without another round of avoidable delay.

Stalybridge West remains some distance from completed homes, and the main construction contract has not been announced as part of the current development. The demolition award nevertheless marks the point at which the scheme begins consuming programme, plant, labour, and site access rather than planning time. On difficult brownfield developments, that is generally where the clean lines of the masterplan start encountering the expensive parts of the ground.