£1.5m to clean up bakery site in bid to build on brownfield land first
A FORMER bakery site in Walsall that was abandoned eight years ago is to finally be redeveloped as housing after it.
Nearly 90 homes will be built on the Harvestime bakery site after a West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) funding deal was revealed this week.
The deal will see the WMCA make more than £1.5m available for the clean-up of the land.
Harvestime Bakery was one of the biggest employers in the area, but the land has been vacant since the business stopped operating in 2012.
It is the latest in a series of industrial sites to be redeveloped under the authority’s ‘brownfield first’ regeneration programme.
A focus on house-building and brownfield sites formed part of the region’s £3.2 billion investment blueprint recently submitted to Government, with the region seeking extra cash to extend its existing £100 million brownfield-first scheme.
Ministers have already signalled their intention to back the region’s plans, recognising the WMCA’s brownfield programme with an extra £84 million of new investment awarded earlier this month.
West Midlands mayor Andy Street, who chairs the WMCA, said: “Before coronavirus struck, we were one of the most promising regions in England.
“We had the fastest growing economy outside of London, living standards were improving, there was a rapid expansion in house building and there were increasing numbers of apprenticeships.
“The pandemic has hit us hard but the redevelopment of sites like Harvestime will help kickstart our economy so we can regain our previous momentum, creating new jobs and good quality, affordable homes for local people.
“Without the WMCA’s intervention this new housing scheme just would not have happened, and the site would have remained a derelict eyesore for the local community. Our investment is transformational for this scheme and the critical ingredient.”