The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and St. Modwen have signed a partnership deal to build 5,000 new homes on disused industrial land over the next decade.
All 5,000 homes will be designed to be low energy in operation, with a minimum of 20% of the new homes classed as affordable.
Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, said: “By working with St. Modwen we’ve managed to unlock one of the region’s most iconic brownfield sites – Longbridge’s West Works. I am therefore delighted that we’ve signed this MOU to continue to work together on more schemes in the future, as we look to build more homes and create more jobs right across the West Midlands.
“At the heart of any work we do together will be brownfield regeneration, as we focus on breathing new life into former derelict industrial sites and their surrounding areas, protecting our precious greenbelt land in the process.
“The West Works site is the first example of this, and I am really pleased we’re pressing on with the future vision for the site with the planning application submitted.”
The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) came as a formal planning application was submitted by St. Modwen for the regeneration of the West Works site at the former MG Rover car plant in Longbridge.
The WMCA’s £6m investment into the project, to help clean up the land and make it ready for redevelopment, will unlock a £300m total investment at West Works. St. Modwen has submitted a planning application to Birmingham City Council for 350 new homes on the site and it is in addition to a new Longbridge Business Park offering up to 900,000 sq ft of commercial space which is expected to create up to 5,000 new jobs.
Robert Flavell, Senior Director – Major Projects for Strategic Land & Regeneration at St. Modwen, said: “St. Modwen is very proud to be able to sign up to this landmark agreement with the WMCA which will help bring much needed new homes and jobs to areas throughout the West Midlands.
“Our plans for West Longbridge will deliver high-quality, energy efficient and environmentally friendly new homes, new commercial space which will bring investment and jobs to the town and a range of green spaces for people to enjoy.”
On completion, the wider regeneration of Longbridge will see up to 2,800 new homes and two million sqft of commercial floorpsace delivered, and up to 10,000 jobs created.
