Long-empty Wolverhampton pub site could be bought up by council to make way for housing

City of Wolverhampton Council said it will use compulsory purchase powers to snap up the eyesore former Bagot Arms in Newhampton Road East in Whitmore Reans to make way for affordable housing.

The pub closed after it was the scene of a fatal shooting in 2008 and has remained empty since.

The boarded-up and overgrown site, which has become a hotbed for anti-social behaviour, received planning permission from the City of Wolverhampton Council in 2023 to turn the site into shops and flats but the work has never been carried out.

In a report, due to be discussed by the Labour-run council’s cabinet on December 10, said there was “no clear sign” the work was going to go ahead.

The council said it had “insisted” to the landowners that the site was kept tidy and secure and had been encouraging them to redevelop it for three years. The building was now “tatty” and “urgently needed redeveloping,” the council added.

Early plans have been drawn up which would see the pub demolished and replaced with 15 flats and would be developed further through a planning application.

“Despite securing planning permission for a mixed use development, the owners have failed to implement this scheme,” the cabinet report continued. “It is understood they have recently sold the property to new owners, but their details are not available yet on Land Registry.

“[Redeveloping the site] would have significant benefits to the character and appearance of the area, help reduce anti-social behaviour, and provide much needed social housing to meet the needs of applicants on the housing waiting list.”

The council approved plans in December 2023 to convert the building, which sits between the Avion Shopping Centre, St Andrew’s Church and Whitmore Reans Health Centre, into eight shops and three one-bed flats.

Father-of-two Luke Harris died after he was shot outside the Whitemore Reans pub in March 2008.