Over 42 Affordable Retirement Homes Approved for Bulkington with £660,000 Funding from West Midlands Mayor
CGI of Bulkington
More than 42 affordable retirement apartments are set to be constructed on the former New Inn pub site in Rugby Road, Bulkington, following a £660,000 investment from Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands.
The development, led by Keon Homes, will provide housing for residents aged 55 and over. Once completed, Midland Heart housing association will offer the apartments at affordable rents, enabling older people to remain within their local community during retirement.
This initiative forms part of the West Midlands Combined Authority’s (WMCA) brownfield regeneration fund, which targets the redevelopment of derelict land to create genuinely affordable homes for local residents. The Mayor’s funding aims to address the region’s housing shortage by accelerating the delivery of affordable housing.
Richard Parker emphasised the urgency of the issue: “For too many years, there hasn’t been nearly enough investment in social and affordable housing, which has left us with an acute shortage of safe, warm homes that older and more vulnerable people can afford.”
He added, “We need to fix the mistakes of the past by rebuilding our affordable housing stock and we’re doing 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, which dated back to the early 1900s, closed in 2016 and was subsequently demolished. The new apartments will incorporate energy-efficient features including all-electric heating systems and solar panels to reduce fuel costs for residents. Additionally, electric car charging points will be installed.
The project is expected to create or safeguard over 110 jobs, including 15 apprenticeships on site, five of which are newly created roles.
Joe Reeves, deputy chief executive of Midland Heart, commented, “This is exactly the kind of development we need to see more of – a disused site brought back into use to provide high-quality, affordable homes for older people in the heart of the community.”
He continued, “At Midland Heart, we’re committed to building 2,750 new homes across the Midlands over the next five years, and developments like this help ensure more people can stay close to the communities they call home.”
Matt Beckley, partnerships director at Keon Homes, said, “Our business has been built on ‘brownfield first’, taking on complex sites and transforming them into communities that people are proud to call their home.”
He added, “We are really pleased to be strengthening our relationships with the West Midlands Combined Authority and Midland Heart to deliver high quality, energy efficient affordable housing in Bedworth – a town that desperately needs it.”
The WMCA’s brownfield regeneration fund supports a variety of housing and regeneration projects, ranging from restoring heritage buildings to mixed-use developments near transport hubs and town centres. Access to this funding was facilitated by the Property Team at Frontier Development Capital Ltd (FDC), which collaborates with property developers to arrange investments from the WMCA’s regeneration funds.
