Waverley in Rotherham demonstrates how a traditional master developer can leverage public funding to remediate a brownfield site, as well as delivering a wide mixture of uses and a substantial uplift in local employment opportunities.
Waverley is a new community in Rotherham, South Yorkshire on the 740-acre former Orgreave Open Cast Colliery and Coking Works site. Up to 3,890 new homes will be delivered, with 1,900 homes delivered since 2012. The first masterplans for Waverley emerged in the mid 1990s, with outline planning permission received in 2011. The development is led by master developer Harworth, as the group’s flagship project. The site includes 300 acres of lakes and parkland, a primary school, a community garden and local centre. It also includes 2 million sqft of manufacturing space at Harworth’s Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) site, where 1.7 million sqft of this has been built or is under construction. This provides over five times as many jobs as the former colliery. This provides enormous employment space beside housing, with joint use of the new local centre.
Harworth worked with Homes England, Rotherham Council and the Sheffield City Region (now South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority) in the remediation and initial infrastructure to bring forward Waverley as a development site. This partnerships for the remediation process navigated high costs that could not have been covered by private development alone. Harworth have also worked with the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in providing a home for their partners at the AMP.
Outline planning included a masterplan, phasing plan and Design and Access Statement by LDA design. These were later updated in response to market conditions. The masterplan divided the site into residential blocks and seven character areas, with higher density housing in the centre and a green spine connecting to extensive parklands to the east. Harworth also developed design codes for each area of Waverley, to establish character areas, ensure quality design and site specific placemaking.
Harworth built key infrastructure such as estate roads, SuDS drainage ponds, and power and services to the boundary of each development plot, followed by releasing land parcels to housebuilder partners, which submitted Reserved Matters applications. The scale of the masterplan has enabled Section 106 obligations to be coordinated across multiple phases rather than negotiated on isolated sites, providing greater certainty. This included a sitewide commitment to 21% affordable housing where later phases deliver higher percentages, once key infrastructure has been funded. By taking ownership of strategic infrastructure delivery, Harworth reduced delivery risk for its partners and improved the overall viability of the site. These costs would also have been difficult to recover through individual development phases alone. By releasing parcels gradually, the pace of development could also respond to market conditions and support a range of housebuilders, increasing architectural variety, tenure choice and product mix across the development, as well as diversifying delivery rates. So far this has included volume housebuilders Barratt Homes, David Wilson Homes and Avant Homes, as well as small-to-medium-sized housebuilders Homes by Honey, Sky-House Co. and Forge New Homes.
A joint venture between Harworth and Dransfield Properties was established to deliver Waverley Town Centre, combining Harworth’s role as master developer with Dransfield Properties’ expertise in developing and operating mixed-use centres. The arrangement enabled investment in retail, leisure and community facilities to be phased alongside housing delivery, reducing delivery risk while ensuring that local services came forward as the community expanded. Waverley’s new centre includes a GP surgery, a supermarket, local units, a community centre, public spaces, and space for temporary traders. It opened in March 2025, ahead of all units being occupied, to allow residents to make use of the public spaces and new supermarket. So far, its units host cafes, restaurants, a vet and a Specsavers.
Harworth employs the Land Trust to oversee the onsite management company and its service charges. Waverley Community Council, its parish council, was setup in 2019 to oversee local services and has since moved into the community centre in Olive Lane. The long-term stewardship role undertaken by the master developer has been central to maintaining delivery. Waverley demonstrates how complex brownfield regeneration can be delivered through a combination of patient private capital, targeted public investment, phased infrastructure delivery and long-term master developer stewardship.
Oliver Lane is being delivered as part of the new town centre. Image Courtesy of Harworth Group.
