Words by Ed King
Castle Vale could see over a hundred new homes being built on the old Greenwood Academy site, after a deal has been struck between Lovell Partnerships, The Pioneer Group, and Birmingham Municipal Housing Trust (BMHT) – Birmingham City Council’s housebuilding arm.
The new housing development, to be called The Point, will see 123 new homes on the Vale, with over 50% being earmarked for social housing and subsidised rentals.
Lovell Partnership will be looking to build 59 two, three, and four bed homes for sale on the open market.
40 homes will be rental properties for Birmingham City Council, whilst the remaining 24 will be rental properties for Vale based The Pioneer Group, managed under its Castle Vale Community Housing (CVCH) social housing brand.
Tenants in The Pioneer Group properties will benefit from affordable rents, with rates set at 20% below current market rent levels.
The Pioneer Group’s homes will include ten 1-bedroom apartments, eight 2-bedroom houses and six 3-bedroom houses. These properties will be allocated to CVCH applicants from its waiting list.
For more information on CVCH allocation scheme and a link to the application form click here.
Greenwood Academy (previously Castle Vale School) opened the doors of its new school building on Farnborough Road on 13 March 2018, with an official ceremony attended by the late MP for Erdington Jack Dromey.
The previous building was sanctioned for demolition, with a tender put out by Birmingham City Council stating the ‘estimated value of the works is in the region of £400,000 to £600,000’.
The work tendered included ‘safe demolition and site clearance’, but the site itself has stayed undeveloped for over four years – with previous concerns over infrastructure and access.
With a deal now agreed between Lovell Partnerships, BMHT, and The Pioneer Group, Castle Vale could soon be welcoming over a hundred new families on to the North Birmingham estate.
Simon Wilson, CEO The Pioneer Group said:
“This exciting new development at Farnborough Road supports our strategic aim to close the gap in the shortage of high quality and affordable housing in a high-demand area.
“The homes will be on the old Greenwood School site and the whole development will provide a range of rented and home ownership opportunities for local residents. This is a great example of working together with the City Council and Lovells to deliver opportunities in the Vale.”
With a population of over 20,000, Castle Vale has been a hotbed of housing and regeneration since becoming one of the UK’s first Housing Action Trusts in April 1993.
Lovell Partnerships have previously delivered over 230 new build homes on a site adjacent to Farnborough Road.
Stuart Penn, regional managing director at Lovell Partnerships, added:
“We have a strong history of work in Castle Vale and the wider Birmingham area which spans more than a decade and look forward to developing this former school site into much-needed, homes, both for the open market and affordable tenures.
“This development is yet another example of our expertise in bringing brownfield sites back into use.
“This particular location has a really interesting history, and the development will pay homage to the past while also looking to the future.”
This is good news brown field sites being used to bring homes to people is how it should be. This is the approach for all inner city building going forward. It has been well recorded by Erdington Local how SHFT (Short Heath Fields Trust) has had to fight for housing to be built in this way and not on valuable green spaces like Short Heath Playing Fields. Although our battle to save our green space goes on with uncertainty still over shadowing our beautiful green space I would hope this approach will become the norm. Hopefully SHFT will be given the chance to deliver sport and open green space for our community and not fight against private development. The wait goes on, with no word from Ian Ward yet which he has said he will “get back to us” and with the loss of Penny Holbrook and now Jack Dromey MP in such sad circumstances who were working with us the future is uncertain at present. Build more houses on brown field sites, invest in parks & playing fields and leave the green space for our community’s enjoy.