Families looking for a safe, warm place to call home are to benefit from a £1m investment from Mayor Richard Parker to help create a thriving new community on the site of a derelict Black Country brickworks.
The investment, from the Mayor’s housing funds, has been used to unlock the second and final phase of the Stallings Place development on the former Ibstock Brick site in Kingswinford.
The investment has paved the way for developer Keepmoat to start work on 115 homes which, together with those already built in the first phase, will create a new 270-home community.
Around 25% of the new homes are classed as affordable, supporting the Mayor’s mission to tackle an acute shortage of such homes across the region.
The Mayor said: “This investment in Stallings Place will breathe new life into another derelict industrial site and provide good quality, much needed housing for local people.
“Around a quarter of these homes will be affordable, and that’s good news because too many people are waiting too long for a warm, safe place they can afford to call home.
“Tackling our housing crisis by building more homes of all types, but especially affordable housing, is a shared goal, and I’m confident that by working with developers like Keepmoat as well as our housing associations and local councils we can make a real difference to the lives of thousands of people in our communities.”
The former Ibstock site in Stallings Lane is the size of ten football pitches and was used for clay extraction and brick production over many years. The Mayor’s investment has been used to clean up the land and make it suitable to build on.
It’s not the first time Keepmoat has helped redevelop a brownfield site in partnership with the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), which is chaired by the Mayor.
Keepmoat became a strategic partner of the WMCA two years ago and has made a commitment to build 4,000 additional new homes in the region over ten years. Stallings Place follows previous joint schemes including Keepmoat’s development of more than 1,000 homes at Spirit Quarters in Coventry.
Shaun Fielding, regional managing director at Keepmoat West Midlands, added: “We’re proud to continue our partnership with the WMCA and Dudley Council as we begin delivery of the final phase at Stallings Place.
“At Keepmoat, we’re committed to transforming brownfield land into fantastic new communities and this collaboration is a testament to our dedicated partnership model.
“We’re excited to see the final transformation take place, which will result in the delivery of more than 250 high-quality, multi-tenure new homes.”
Cllr Ian Bevan, cabinet member for housing and homelessness at Dudley Council, said: “As a council we very much welcome this scheme, which will bring back into use a large patch of land which has lain derelict for many years.
“It ties in very strongly with our brownfield first strategy outlined in the Dudley Plan and aligns with our aim to protect green land from development wherever possible.
“Furthermore, I am pleased that a quarter of the new homes will be classed as affordable and offer people an important first step onto the housing ladder. I look forward to the start of work on this exciting development in our borough.”
