Multi-million investment helps prepare site for housing development
Nearly £4.5m has been spent cleaning up a brownfield site for housing – on the condition 20 per cent of the homes built are affordable.
The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) provided £4.43m for the work on a seven-acre plot between Pool Hill Road and Doseley Road in Dawley.
The project involves building 36 new homes.
The WMCA said its investment in the scheme is the latest from its housing and regeneration programme which, in partnership with industry, is providing new homes, jobs and commercial spaces.
The need to divert a culvert running across the land and the presence of old mine shafts had made it financially difficult for private developers to take the site on.
The WMCA said its investment has enabled developer Central & Country to clean up the site and make it suitable for redevelopment.
As part of the investment, 20 per cent of the new homes will be classed as affordable – using the WMCA's own regional definition, which is linked to real world local wages rather than surrounding property prices.
Nick Laight, director of Central and Country, added: “We constructed the site adjacent to this project five years ago and are well placed to understand the challenges in the brownfield reclamation costs of this site.
“Sometimes not being naive can be a detriment in getting the project up and running as the challenges are usually worse than predicted. With spiralling build costs this project would not have come forward without the partnering and co-operation we have received from Telford Council, Homes England, WMCA and Frontier Development Capital.
“Together we have enabled the project to be acceptable as a commercial enterprise and to enable a local firm such as ourselves to commit to bringing 36 bespoke homes forward.”
The WMCA’s investment in the scheme is not the first housing development in Telford to receive backing.
Three years ago, it invested £460,000 to help build 46 new homes on Southwater Way, close to Telford town centre, with 11 of the properties made available at affordable rents.
Councillor Richard Overton, Telford & Wrekin Council's deputy leader and cabinet member for homes & enforcement, said: “It’s great to see further investment from the WMCA in housing delivery in Telford. We continue to work collaboratively with the WMCA to optimise funding opportunities for the borough, with a particular focus on brownfield land.”
