Contract award
Willmott Dixon appointed to £28m first phase at Oldham
By Staff Writer | 12 August 2026
Construction has started on the £28m opening phase of Prince's Gate, creating 75 affordable homes in Oldham town centre for Muse in partnership with Oldham Council.
Willmott Dixon has started construction on the £28m first phase of Prince's Gate in Oldham town centre. Phase 1, known as Block C, will deliver 75 affordable homes over six levels for the placemaker Muse, working in partnership with Oldham Council.
The site is the former Prince Street car park, adjacent to the Mumps Metrolink stop. The scheme turns a prominent brownfield plot into what the partners describe as a new gateway into the town centre.
The homes are designed to meet the Future Homes Standard, with the partnership targeting energy performance around 70 to 75 per cent better than current building regulations.
The standard being targeted
An energy performance target of that order is a design and procurement commitment rather than a statement of intent. It drives fabric specification, airtightness testing regimes and the services strategy, and it is normally reflected in the subcontract packages as performance obligations rather than descriptive specification.
Willmott Dixon and its supply chain partners have also committed to support Oldham residents facing barriers to employment, helping them develop work-ready skills and gain industry experience.
Construction is due to complete in summer 2028.
Anthony Dillon, managing director for Willmott Dixon North
Where this sits in the contractor's book
Prince's Gate joins a growing town centre housing portfolio for the contractor across the north of England. It is currently delivering 81 net zero homes at Station Gardens in Rochdale and 82 homes at the £24m Hough Top scheme in Leeds, and is preparing to start the £114m Stage regeneration in Luton, which includes 292 apartments.
A phased town centre regeneration of this kind ordinarily brings further packages to market as each stage secures its funding, so the first phase is worth watching as an indicator of what follows rather than as a single award.
The employment commitments
Willmott Dixon and its supply chain partners have committed to support Oldham residents facing barriers to employment, helping them develop work-ready skills, gain industry experience and secure sustained work. Commitments of that kind are increasingly written into public sector development agreements as measurable obligations rather than aspirations, and they are reported on through the life of the contract.
For subcontractors bidding packages on schemes of this type, that matters commercially. Social value obligations flow down, and the resourcing required to meet them is a cost that belongs in the tender rather than being absorbed later.
The site's position beside the Mumps Metrolink stop is central to the case for the scheme. Building affordable homes on a brownfield plot with direct tram access is the kind of proposition that attracts public funding, and it is why the phasing is tied to each stage securing its own funding.