Plans for the largest regeneration site in the south-west of England are to move ahead this year, following government backing for a second harbour crossing in Poole — the so-called Twin Sails Bridge.

Poole Borough Council will begin work this summer on the £37m bridge after last month winning a £14.14m Department for Transport grant, which in turn unlocks Holes Bay Basin where there are long-term plans for 2,000 homes.

Gallagher Estates controls most of the 40 acre regeneration area and its landholding requires remediation. But the other key landowner, Inland, says that, following the breakthrough on gap funding for the bridge, it will submit an application for its site at Lower Hamworthy in the next six months.

AIM-quoted Inland plans a £100m mixed-use scheme with up to 500 homes on its 9.5 acre site, which it bought in 2007. Inland still collects £340,000 a year in rent from the current industrial occupier, Pilkington Tiles.

Despite widespread concerns about the funding of regeneration, Inland chief executive Stephen Wicks hopes to start construction in the next 18 months and build about 20% of the housing from the group’s own resources.

Inland is still sitting on a cash pile after raising £60m on the stock market in 2007. Wicks says the cash will allow the company to follow a well-rehearsed development strategy in Poole.

The Inland model is to buy brownfield land speculatively before securing planning consent and building out an initial phase of housing and selling the remaining land to volume housebuilders.

At a former Defence Estates site in Farnborough, Inland has sold 57 serviced plots to Bellway for nearly £6m.

The transaction leaves Inland with £3.3m after debt. It also leads Wicks to conclude that housebuilders are back in the market for “oven-ready” regeneration sites.

“We are seeing them come out of the woodwork, particularly where there are housing-led projects rather than multistorey flats,” he says.

• Poole’s Twin Sail bridge wins £14.4m funding
• Bellway buys Brentwood hospital sites
• Plans submitted for historic Towcester regeneration
• Covent Garden Market Authority kicks off search for £1bn development partner
• Local land grab begins as RDAs wind up