Under the terms of the £100m PFI scheme, the Sapphire consortium will build three retirement villages in the city and maintain them over a 25-year period in partnership with the council.

Sapphire’s team also includes Kajima Partnerships, Seddon Construction and Your Housing Group.

The project is the largest of its kind to ever be developed in Stoke-on-Trent.

Retirement villages will be located at Holdcroft Fields, the former Brookwood Home and Blurton Farm Depot and the former Westcliffe Hospital.

They will cater for people aged over 55 offering self-contained apartments and include communal lounges, restaurants, landscaped gardens, gyms and hair and beauty salons.

Councillor Ruth Rosenau said: “We are pleased to announce Sapphire as the preferred bidder and the consortium has consistently demonstrated its ability to deliver in what has been a necessarily rigorous procurement process.”