From classroom to career: plans revealed for UK-first Middlehaven neighbourhood

LIVE. LEARN. WORK. PLAY

Capital&Centric and Middlesbrough Council are inviting locals to help shape plans for 462 new homes at Middlehaven – completing what could become the UK’s first neighbourhood to bring homes, secondary and further education, major sporting facilities and a dedicated digital and creative business community together in one walkable campus.

The social impact developer is revealing its latest thinking for land around the Old Town Hall at Middlehaven, giving Middlesbrough locals an early look at how the largely underused site could be brought back to life.

The plans for phase 1 would deliver 462 new high-quality homes, including houses and low-rise build-to-rent apartments, alongside shared gardens, play streets, green pedestrian routes and new spaces for the community. But the ambition goes beyond building homes.

Middlehaven already has many of the ingredients of a campus sitting side by side: schools and further education, major sports facilities and an established cluster of digital, technology and creative businesses. Capital&Centric’s plans would introduce the missing piece – hundreds of new homes, cafe bars and restaurants, with the people and community to go with them. The ambition is simple: LIVE. LEARN. WORK. PLAY. All in one place. A UK first for Middlesbrough. It could create a neighbourhood where somebody can go to school, continue their education, play and train in sport, develop new skills, find a job in the digital and creative industries and eventually have a home all without leaving Middlehaven. School here. Learn here. Work here. Train here. Live here. Why should life’s opportunities be miles apart? The first phase would focus on creating the new residential community around the Old Town Hall, with green spaces and pedestrian-friendly streets connecting into the wider Middlehaven area.

Capital&Centric has been working with international architects MVRDV and shedkm to explore how the new neighbourhood could look and feel, with a focus on creating somewhere distinctive, green and unmistakably Middlesbrough. Rather than arriving with a finished scheme, Capital&Centric and Middlesbrough Council are now asking local people to help shape the plans while they are still evolving.

Have your say
A public drop-in consultation will take place:
Thursday 10 September 2026
4pm–7pm
TigerIvy, Albert Road, Middlesbrough

There’s no need to book. People can simply drop in, see the emerging plans, meet the team and share their views, with free bites and a drink or two while they’re there. Feedback from the consultation will help shape the proposals ahead of a potential planning application later this year.

Dan White, Development Director at Capital&Centric, said:

“Middlehaven has something pretty special already. You’ve got schools and a college, brilliant sports facilities and a growing community of digital, tech and creative businesses – all within walking distance of each other. What’s been missing is the hundreds of homes that knits everything up for residents and visitors. Our ambition is to bring all of that together and create something we don’t think exists anywhere else in the UK: a proper neighbourhood where you can live, learn, work and play, all in one place. Imagine growing up here, going to school here, moving on to college, training or playing sport, learning the skills for a career, getting a job with a digital business next door and eventually having your own home here. From classroom to career without leaving the neighbourhood. That’s the opportunity at Middlehaven. Its means so much more than putting a few hundred homes on empty sites. We’re connecting everything that’s already here and creating a community around it. But we’re still at an early stage. We want people in Middlesbrough to come down, see what we’re thinking and tell us what they love, what they don’t and what would make it even better.”

Cllr Theo Furness, Middlesbrough Council’s Executive member for Economic Development, said:

“The plans for Middlehaven are hugely exciting. Building thousands of attractive new homes is key to our vision for the town centre. The area has a proud past and I know it means a great deal to many people. It’s really important that people give us their views on this big opportunity for Middlesbrough.”

Following the consultation, Capital&Centric and Middlesbrough Council will review the feedback and continue developing the proposals ahead of a potential planning application later this year.