Express & Star

650 new homes for Dudley town centre

A housing boom is on the way for Dudley town centre with 650 new homes planned to help boost its regeneration.

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Council bosses want to encourage more people to live in the town centre. They say shops and businesses in the town will benefit from increased trade.

It's the latest vision to help breathe new life into the centre and comes after a £50 million masterplan to build restaurants, shops and houses alongside a supermarket on the site of Cavendish House was unveiled earlier this month.

Among the housing projects on the cards is the conversion of former council offices dotted around the town's civic quarter into 90 homes.

And the historic former post office on the corner of Wolverhampton Street and Priory Street has been earmarked for 21 apartments.

Around 140 homes are being built on the site of the old gas works in Constitution Hill and another 43 on Dudley College's old Mons Hill campus.

Further schemes are in the pipeline to provide more homes in and around the town centre to help meet the demand.

Dudley Council's housing chiefs say they want to ensure there are 'affordable' options for families and help increase footfall in the town. They say shops and restaurants will be benefit from more people being on the doorstep during the day and in the evenings.

John Millar, acting strategic director for economy, environment and housing, said: "Our exciting regeneration work across the town centre will not only bring exciting shopping and business opportunities, but a key part of this is making sure we have affordable homes for people.

"We are creating opportunities for people to live close by to help naturally increase footfall in the town centre and take advantage of all the town has to offer.

"As part of this we are creating 650 homes in and around the town centre at sites including North Priory, Constitution Hill, Mons Hill and also the refurbishment of former office buildings into residential properties in the civic quarter which is currently ongoing."

During the past five years, work has been taking place to improve the town centre.

It has been given a boost by the completion of Dudley College's £30m learning quarter which has seen new campuses built in Tower Street and Priory Road.

While work is also nearing completion on a £6million overhaul of Dudley's historic market place.

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