The former Wolverhampton Grammar School pupil met with City of Wolverhampton Council Leader, Councillor Ian Brookfield, and regional partners to view key housing and regeneration sites, with a focus on helping increase the pace of building more affordable housing and city centre living.
He visited the £21 million mixed use development at the old bus depot site on Cleveland Road adjacent to the former Royal Hospital site, where the historic building is set to be converted into housing on a key gateway to the city centre. Both will deliver more than 300 new homes.
The Secretary of State was then shown the Interchange scheme, proposed Brewers Yard site, City East gateway, and Springfield Campus.
The Brewers Yard will create 1,100 new city centre homes. This ambitious residential led mixed-use development is just a few hundred metres from the railway station and offers great accessibility to the city centre and University campuses.
City East gateway forms part of the Walsall to Wolverhampton corridor link, which is one of the key strategic routes and links to the motorway network. Scheme development and consultation are well advanced in a bid to attract investment.
Located on the north eastern edge of the city centre, the University of Wolverhampton’s Springfield Campus is transforming a historic brownfield site into an International Centre for Urban Innovation.
Robert Jenrick MP said: “My priority is to unlock brownfield sites and enable homes to be built near to the places where people work and shop.
“I think Wolverhampton is an example of where government can work to improve the city centre to help it evolve as consumer habits are changing.
“There are a lot more opportunities to get more homes and work spaces into a city centre like this and give it new life and help the city centre to thrive in the future.”
Councillor Ian Brookfield added: “Considering he had only been in post for less than 24 hours and he chose to come to Wolverhampton to see what we’re doing, especially in our delivery of homes estates, it is fantastic.
“His priorities are our priorities. We want to deliver good homes – affordable, rent, shared ownership, buy – for all the people of the city.
“That’s what we told him. We’re ready, willing and able to do this and, given the finances, we can deliver the homes that our city requires.”
