Hargreaves Services has struck a £9m deal to sell a plot of land earmarked for a major residential development to Newcastle housebuilder Bellway.
The 10.75 acre site is located at Blindwells, near Edinburgh, and plans have been put forward to build 1,600 homes on the land.
County Durham’s Hargreaves has exchanged conditional contracts with the Newcastle housebuilder, which will pay £9m in the deal.
David Anderson, Hargreaves’ group property director, said: “We are delighted to exchange contracts with Bellway in our second conditional sale of land at the Blindwells site.
“We are encouraged by the level of interest in the site and look forward to bringing further plots to market in the coming year and beyond.”
The deal is dependent on the detailed planning permission and associated statutory approvals being granted for the development of the residential estate.
Currently Blindwells has been issued outline planning consent but it is expected that the detailed planning permission will be issued in the second half of 2020.
Earlier this year Hargreaves signed a conditional contract with a leading Scottish housebuilder for its first sale of land at Blindwells.
The contract is valued at £1m, with planning consent expected to be granted soon.
The first contract is expected to be completed in early 2020.
Hargreaves recently warned that it could cut up to 170 jobs after the collapse of British Steel hit the business hard.
The Durham firm has worked as a supplier to British Steel for the last eight years, but said it could make staff redundant after the steel firm entered receivership.
British Steel’s collapse has meant that Hargreaves could be forced to take a £10m hit to its balance sheet.
The Durham firm told investors it is exposed to the tune of £4.5m to British Steel, through its work-in-progress balance and trade debt, which it warned could be “irrecoverable”.
The loss of work could also reduce Hargreaves’ revenue figure by £11m and its profit before tax by £1.3m.
In its accounts for the year ending May 31 2018, Hargreaves reported revenues of £45.6m and an operating loss of £1.4m.
