Wolverhampton City Council to build new houses at last

Wolverhampton City Council is not asking Bedfordshire-based developer Kier Group to pay for a seven-acre site off Thompson Avenue in Ettingshall but will instead want new homes handed over to it.

The firm will build 104 houses, of which a quarter will be handed over to the authority, which will pay £2m for the deal. The new houses should be built by 2018.

It has not been revealed when work will start but they will become the first new council homes to be built in the city since those created in Pendeford in the 1980s.

The 26-home deal comes as the council's housing company Wolverhampton Homes has a waiting list that regularly stands at around 13,000.

There are also more than 3,000 council tenants affected by the government's so-called 'bedroom tax' which removes 14 or 25 per cent of housing benefit for people who have one or more spare rooms. The council has a shortage of smaller homes for people to move to.

It has not yet been revealed what size the homes will be.

Ruling Labour councillors have agreed at a behind-closed-doors meeting that they will use developer Kier Group for the work. The company will also build homes of its own to sell.

Minutes of the cabinet meeting published today reveal that councillors agreed 'that the council forgo a capital receipt for the site in consideration of new affordable housing to be built and handed over to the council' and 'that a sum of £2m in capital be invested into the delivery of new council housing on the site'.

Councillor Roger Lawrence, leader of Wolverhampton City Council, said: "This has been an aim of ours for a considerable amount of time. We recognise there is a significant need for housing in the area."

The authority is looking at other sites in the city such as council-owned garages to see where more new homes could be built.

The project comes after the number of council properties dwindled as tenants took up the right to buy their homes.

New council homes are also being built in the neighbouring borough of Dudley.

The council there has finished work on almost 100 new properties including some in Brierley Hill and Dudley – the first to be built in the area for more than 20 years.

The 99 properties include two, three and four bedroom houses, bungalows and three blocks of flats comprising six two bedroom flats for residents with learning disabilities.

Daniel Wainwright