A partnership agreement has been signed by organisations including Bolton Council, Peel Land and the borough's NHS trust to advance the Health Innovation Bolton (HIB) initiative, a project with a capital investment of £520M.
The group described it as a £1 billion catalyst project which 'puts health and wellbeing at the heart of a 700-acre economic and community development'. The scheme includes 200,000 sqm of employment, R&D and health floorspace alongside more than 2,000 new homes.
Site and landownership
The huge site, bounded by the M61 to the south, includes pockets of green field land owned by Peel Land which border Plodder Lane, Watergate Lane, Smethhurst Lane and St Helens Road, among others. The plot also includes the current Royal Bolton Hospital site and the newly built university medical school.
Other landowners within the site are Bradford Estates, who possess an area next to the hospital, and Bolton Council. The partnership agreement has been signed this week by Bolton Council, Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, Bradford Estates, Peel Land, The University of Greater Manchester, Bolton College and facilities management business iFM.
Health and transport ambitions
HIB said the scheme aims to 'tackle some of Bolton's most entrenched health and social challenges'. It added that 'no comparable site in Greater Manchester offers the same combination of hospital adjacency, medical school and university proximity, and potential for a health-led innovation ecosystem'.
Presently, Plodder Lane and associated roads, which run from the M61 to the hospital and Farnworth, are notoriously traffic congested. The strategic HIB plans include a new 'primary transport corridor' designed to ease congestion around the hospital and Plodder Lane, with improved access to the M61 at Junction 4.
Jobs and next steps
HIB said 4,500 direct on-site jobs are expected once the site is operational, of which 2,300 are expected to go to Bolton residents. It said 'this is the only location capable of delivering these outcomes for the town'.
Stephen Wild, managing director of Peel Land, said: “HIB is exactly the kind of transformational investment needed to address long-standing health inequalities and build on the world-class health and life science ecosystem across Greater Manchester and the wider North West. Healthcare in isolation has never been the whole answer – it’s housing, jobs, green space and connections that are so needed to drive alignment of health and social care needs with the environment. This is exactly why HIB brings a hospital, university campus, new homes, jobs and local business together to form a new neighbourhood.”
Bolton Council leader Akhtar Zaman said: “Meaningful regeneration goes beyond bricks and mortar to create new opportunities and lasting improvements in people’s lives. Health Innovation Bolton is the perfect example of this by bringing new jobs and much needed homes to our borough, while also addressing the fundamentally unfair health inequalities that impact our communities. The scale and ambition of HIB are an ideal fit for Bolton’s ongoing regeneration.”
HIB said work on project governance, a business plan, masterplan, delivery strategy and infrastructure has progressed in 2026. A joint development vehicle between Peel Land and Bolton Council is also proposed. A public consultation on the scheme will take place in 2027.
