Former Wolverhampton residential home hit by arson attack will be put on open market

Underhill House was targeted on Tuesday night, causing smoke damage.

Wolverhampton City Council now plans to sell the derelict building in Underhill Lane, Bushbury.

Spokesman Tim Clark said: "The site of the former Underhill House care home is still in council ownership.

"The site was secure but we will obviously be reviewing that after this incident.

"It is our intention to place this site on the market and find a buyer for it."

Wolverhampton North East MP Emma Reynolds said the building had become an eyesore.

She said: "I hope that the Underhill House site can be redeveloped as quickly as possible in consultation with local residents. It has become a blight on the area especially with the recent arson attack."

The residential home closed in January 2010, despite campaigners fighting to keep it open through a High Court battle.

The closure sparked national controversy as elderly residents, including the late 106-year-old Louisa Watts, were wheeled out into the snow on the coldest day of the year.

She was thought to have been the fifth oldest person in the UK when she turned 107, five months after the closure.

After residents were re-located, the building was used as a temporary day centre. Shortly after the closure there were plans to bring the building permanently back to life by turning it into a doctor's surgery, but those plans stalled following the announcement of a shake-up in the NHS and the planned abolition of primary care trusts.

The plans were revived in May 2012.

Council bosses put proposals before the Strategic Health Authority for the West Midlands to transform the site into two GP surgeries and a pharmacy.

But it is now understood that those plans were dropped some time around Christmas last year. Two fires started in the building's offices on Tuesday night. Firefighters said there was evidence of a forced entry, leading them to suspect arson. Most of the damage was caused by smoke.