Building has begun on 12 three-bedroom social rent homes on Whitfield Street, Tranmere, an empty former NHS car park. Wirral has 4,792 households waiting.

Work has started on 12 new family homes for social rent on Whitfield Street in Tranmere. The land was most recently leased to the NHS as a car park and has stood empty since.

The homes are being built by Magenta Living, Wirral’s largest housing association, with the construction firm Seddon. Magenta announced the start on site on 10 November. Wirral Council followed on 11 November.

What is being built

Magenta’s announcement sets out the scheme:

  • 12 houses, all with three bedrooms
  • all-electric, with energy-efficient features to help keep heating bills down
  • let at social rent
  • on brownfield land that was previously an NHS car park

It is the third development Magenta and Seddon have delivered together. Neither organisation has said when the homes will be finished or when they will be let.

Why it matters

The waiting list dwarfs the supply. Social homes across Merseyside are let through Property Pool Plus, the choice-based lettings scheme Wirral shares with Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton and Halton. Its own figures show:

Wirral Figure
Households registered for rehousing, March 2026 4,792
Homes allocated, 2025/26 813

That is roughly six households on the register for every home let in a year. Twelve houses will not change that on their own.

Paul McGrady, Magenta Living’s Chief Financial Officer, said the scheme was “another step towards our ambition of building 1,300 new homes by 2030”.

Councillor Paula Basnett, Leader of Wirral Council, called it “a brilliant example of how we can reimagine places to deliver affordable, high-quality homes where they are needed.”

Richard Sterling, Development and Decarbonisation Director at Seddon, said smaller sites like this one “can contribute to the delivery of affordable homes while bringing unused land back into use.”

Part of a wider run of social rent schemes

Whitfield Street is the second Magenta scheme to start in this part of Wirral this autumn. In October the association broke ground on The Parchments in Oxton, 30 social rent flats on the site of a former school. The council described them as the first social homes built in Oxton village for at least ten years.

The council is also looking to own homes again. In October councillors were asked to approve buying 38 new homes for social rent in Bromborough from Magenta’s allocation at the Northstone development.

What it means for you

  • If you are looking for a social home, Magenta is one of the landlords that advertise through Property Pool Plus, where you register and then bid on properties as they are advertised. Magenta has not yet said when the Whitfield Street homes will be advertised.
  • If you live near Whitfield Street, expect building work on the former car park for some months. Magenta has not published a finish date or working hours.