North Lanarkshire Council has approved extraction and remediation works across 200 acres of the 1,200-acre plot – unlocking the next phase of brownfield regeneration scheme.

The programme involves ripping out deep steelworks foundations and shifting more than 2.7m cubic metres of material to prepare land for a new mixed-use community.

The cleared area alone could eventually support up to 2,000 homes alongside commercial, leisure and green-space development.

The approved zone includes Meadowhead next to new urban park The Craig, land around the Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility, and plots north of New College Lanarkshire’s Motherwell Campus.

Ravenscraig director Russell Wilkie said the approval “turns once-unusable industrial land into a viable location for residential development that will breathe new life into the area.”

Council leader Jim Logue said the authority’s new road and active-travel links from Motherwell to Ravenscraig were “essential to open up the site to enable further investment.”

The JV behind the scheme – Barratt Developments, Tata Steel and Scottish Enterprise – has already invested £250m in long-term plans to transform the former steelworks, which closed in 1992.