Ford's Brentwood HQ sold for £40m with plans for 400 homes

Ford has had its UK headquarters in Brentwood for more than 50 years

The former headquarters of car giant Ford has been bought for £40m, with plans for more than 400 homes.

The site at Warley in Brentwood, Essex was the centre of Ford's UK operations for more than 50 years, but it closed the building in 2018.

Fairview New Homes purchased the 21 acres for residential development.

"We are delighted with the prospect of building new homes on this locally-significant site," said Fairview's spokesman Rhys Davies.

"We will continue to work closely with Brentwood Borough Council to make sure our private and affordable homes are complementary to the local residential area."

The land with be used to build 150 homes while the former Ford central office building will be sub-sold to Land Charter Homes and turned into 266 flats.

The government has allocated almost 8,000 homes to be built between 2016 and 2033 in the Brentwood borough, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) said.

Jasper Masters, from CBRE, which advised Ford on the sale, said the site was an "iconic local landmark" and the homes would be the start of "the exciting regeneration of the wider area".

Ford now operate out of their sites in Dunton, Essex and Daventry, Northamptonshire.