An artist’s impression of the proposed care home. Image, Harris Irwin Architects

A development site in Northwich, Cheshire, has been put on the market with planning permission sought for a 72-bed care home.

Specialist business property adviser, Christie & Co, has been instructed to sell the 1.78-acre site formed of vacant greenfield land situated off Chester Way (A559), a main road through Northwich with direct connections to the town centre.

Further to a positive pre-application process, a full planning application was submitted by Morrison Community Care Group in May 2024 for the ‘development of a 72-bed Class C2 care home, with ancillary communal facilities, means of access, landscaping, open space and all other works and infrastructure’.

A decision is anticipated later this year.

A Desktop Planning Needs Assessment was carried out by Christie & Co’s in-house consultancy team in May 2024.

The report, which considered a 10km radius, highlighted:

• A current undersupply of 558 EMC (effective market capacity) beds in the area which is forecast to increase to 690 beds by 2029
• A requirement for 822 beds which is expected to increase to 1,096 by 2034
• The elderly population within the catchment is anticipated to grow by 22.8% over the next 10 years
• The proposed development is located in the constituency of Tatton which has a dementia diagnosis rate of 1.69% notably above the UK benchmark
• Wetroom provision is limited within the catchment with only 13.9% of bed provision having this feature

Sara Hartill, associate director of healthcare development and investment at Christie & Co, who is handling the sale, said: “Northwich is a particularly-difficult area to unlock quality land.

“Morrison Community Care Group has done a superb job in identifying such a prominent site and is now well advanced with a detailed planning application.

“The demand demographics are especially compelling, with a particularly-large need for quality new beds, compounded by supportive fee evidence.

“With both freehold land and turnkey exits available thanks to the developer’s extensive history, we have no doubt this will turn into a competitive sale process and have already been approached by several national operators who have recognised this opportunity as integral for their UK acquisition plans.”