West Midlands Mayor Andy Street has hailed work to replace an outdated housing estate in north Coventry as ‘a brilliant example of how we can create new communities and protect our precious green spaces.’
Following the completion of a £1 million investment by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), houses off Milverton Road on the Wood End estate are being knocked down in order to pave the way for developer Keepmoat Homes to build 94 high quality new homes on the 5.5 acre site, of which 20 will be available for social rent in partnership with Citizen Housing.
Mr Street, who leads the WMCA, said: “Creating new communities and sustainable neighbourhoods on brownfield land has been one of the region’s real success stories in recent years.
“By using government cash to clean-up derelict industrial land or residential sites like Wood End we’ve helped create thousands of new homes and jobs, whilst also protecting our precious and irreplaceable green belt. Our investments have also helped to create and secure local jobs for local people by guaranteeing work for the construction sector during the pandemic.
“The existing housing at Wood End had come to the end of its life and was no longer fit for purpose but this WMCA investment means it can now be demolished and replaced with good quality, energy efficient and affordable homes for local people.
“This is a brilliant example of how we can create new communities and protect our precious green spaces.”
The scheme will generate dozens of employment opportunities, including apprenticeships and work placements, which will be delivered throughout the lifetime of the project.
Wood End was built by the city council in the late 1950s and early 1960s to rehouse families from the inner city as well as people moving to Coventry to work in its then-booming car industry.
But the area’s fortunes declined and it became one of the city’s most deprived neighbourhoods. It has now been earmarked for major redevelopment together with the nearby Manor Farm, Henley Green and Deedmore neighbourhoods – a project that will eventually see more than 3,300 new homes built.
The Wood End scheme, part of the wider Spirit Quarters redevelopment, is the latest in a pipeline of investments the WMCA has made throughout the pandemic to regenerate brownfield sites for new homes and jobs, helping to relieve development pressure on the green belt.