Mayor backs affordable housing scheme for older people on site of former pub

The apartments, on land that was once the New Inn pub in Rugby Road, Bulkington, are being built by Keon Homes and once completed will be made available for the over 55s by housing association Midland Heart at affordable rents.

The announcement is the latest to be made by the Mayor as part of his drive to accelerate the construction of affordable new homes to help tackle the region’s housing crisis.

The investment is being made from the West Midlands Combined Authority’s (WMCA) £128m brownfield regeneration fund, which is focused of regenerating derelict sites, often referred to as brownfield land, for homes that are genuinely affordable for local people.

The Mayor said: “For too many years, there hasn’t been nearly enough investment in social and affordable housing and that’s left us with an acute shortage of safe, warm homes that families and older people can afford.

“We need to fix the mistakes of the past by rebuilding our affordable housing stock and we do that through schemes like this one at Bulkington.

“It will provide genuinely affordable homes for older people, breathe new life into a derelict site and create valuable jobs for local people. This is about rebuilding communities and giving people places they can feel connected to and proud of.”

The New Inn pub dated back to the early 1900s but closed in 2016 and later demolished.

In its place will be apartments featuring energy efficient all-electric heating and solar panels to help keep fuel costs down for residents. There will also be charging points for electric cars.

More than 110 jobs will be created or safeguarded by the development including 15 apprentices working on site, five of which will be new roles.

Midland Heart quote here

Keon Homes quote here

The WMCA’s brownfield regeneration funds are used to support a wide range of housing and regeneration projects – from the restoration and conversion of unique heritage buildings into new homes to mixed use developments around key transport hubs and town centres.

Access to the WMCA funding was provided by the Property Team at Frontier Development Capital Ltd (FDC) which works closely with property developers to arrange investments from the WMCA’s regeneration funds.