The Manx Development Corporation has been given until January 2027 to complete a legal agreement for its proposed Westmoreland Village development in Douglas.

The government-owned company requested a further six-month extension while its future role in brownfield regeneration is reviewed.

Plans to redevelop land between Demesne Road and Westmoreland Road (23/00291/B) were approved by the planning committee last year, despite concerns about parking, landownership and affordable housing.

However, the application remains listed as ‘pending decision’ on the planning website.

The proposed development has therefore not yet secured all the necessary arrangements, despite last year's committee approval and the ongoing work to prepare the affordable housing agreement.

The scheme includes 133 homes, comprising apartments, townhouses, small blocks of flats and a senior living block.

Proposals also include a new hut for the 1st Douglas Scout Group and the refurbishment and extension of Crookall House for offices.

Although much of the site has been cleared, MDC does not yet own or control all the land, a condition attached to the planning committee's approval.

The owners of Ellan Vannin Chiropractic Clinic, at 44 Westmoreland Road, have not agreed to sell.

Meanwhile, the Council of Ministers has asked Treasury to review MDC's future function, role and operating model, including the effect of rising construction costs on the viability of brownfield regeneration.

In August, the planning committee unanimously agreed to extend the deadline until January 2027 for signing a Section 13 agreement relating to affordable housing, another condition of approval.

Treasury supported the extension, telling the committee: ‘The extended review obviously leaves MDC with some challenges with proceeding with or committing to new projects.’

But correspondence released under Freedom of Information legislation at the end of October reveals questions about the delay.

In June, Steve Butler, the planning department's head of development management, asked why the wider review should affect completion of the legal agreement.

He emailed MDC managing director Dane Harrop: ‘If the Section 13 is ready to be signed then it should be signed. If MDC are unable or unwilling to proceed then we will need to ask planning committee to reconsider the decision.’

Mr Harrop said work on the Section 13 agreement had progressed and all parties ‘seem to be happy’ with the latest draft.

Douglas City Council and the Scouts are also parties to the agreement.

A separate agreement with the Scouts, as landowner, has been drafted covering the transfer of buildings and arrangements for any temporary relocation.

However, negotiations over the chiropractic clinic site have proved difficult.

An MDC paper prepared for the Council of Ministers' brownfield regeneration steering group in July 2025 described the proposed purchase of 44 Westmoreland Road as remaining at an ‘impasse’.

MDC has already spent more than £2m acquiring properties for the Westmoreland Village development.

The corporation was established in March 2021 as an arm's-length government-owned company tasked with bringing brownfield sites back into use.

It has yet to make a profit.

Its first project, the £11m refurbishment of the former Nurses' Home, was completed in early 2025.