Express & Star

Mayor wants Black Country brownfield sites to be built on to save the green belt

The West Midlands Mayor says he hopes council chiefs will rip up plans for green belt development when a crucial new land report is published next month.

Published
The former Caparo site in Walsall

Thousands of homes have been earmarked for green sites under the draft version of the Black Country Plan, which sparked a wave of protests from residents after its publication earlier this year.

It prompted West Midlands Mayor Andy Street to commission a review to examine whether enough had been done to identify old industrial sites that could be developed instead.

Mr Street said he expected the review – due to be published next month – to show there was a shortfall in the number of brownfield sites put forward in the plan.

Outlining the protection of the region's green belt as one of his priorities for 2022, the Mayor said: "I hope this will be the way that we can protect more of the green belt by demonstrating that we can do more on brownfield sites.

"I am absolutely determined that once the report is published we can then have an amendment to the draft plan that will see more brownfield sites put forward.

"Obviously for that to happen we need to continue apace the brownfield development that we currently have going on in our region."

In recent years a number of former brownfield sites have been developed or are in the process of being developed for homes and jobs.

They include the old Caparo site and Phoenix 10 in Walsall, Culwell Street in Wolverhampton and the former Longbridge site in Birmingham.

And Mr Street said he was particularly keen to strike a deal for the old Soho Foundry site in Smethwick, which has the potential for thousands of homes.

He said: "There is huge potential there. It is like the Longbridge area of Birmingham and it is clearly one of the industrial areas that we should be developing.

"We have private sector investment interested and I'm really optimistic that a deal can be struck there.

"There will be many more development announcements through the coming year, which will really help to protect the green belt."

Over the past six months the West Midlands Combined Authority has received £66 million in Government funding for brownfield regeneration, on top of a £350m housing deal.

Mr Street said talks were at an advanced stage over further funding for 2022.