Wolverhampton Council to buy city centre car park for 1,000-home regeneration project

Wolverhampton Council will contribute £750,000 towards buying a car park to make way for extra homes on a huge 1,000-home redevelopment.

The council is set to agree to buy the former Network House site in School Street, Wolverhampton, as part of the huge Smithgate development.

The site of the former ageing Network House and shopping parade in School Street, which was demolished more than six years ago, was converted into a private 24-hour car park at the start of 2024.

The site has recently been listed for sale with an asking price of £2.1m.

Wolverhampton Council and Smithgate developer English Cities Fund (ECF) will split the cost of purchasing the former Network House site, with the local authority’s contribution capped at £750,000.

Any extra funding would require further approval, a council report said.

Wolverhampton Council said buying the land would increase the potential number of homes from 377 to 460 as well as provide commercial and leisure space and improve connectivity.

Wolverhampton Council had approved plans to keep a 24-hour car park on the School Street site earlier this year having rejected similar plans in 2024, saying the car park would stand in the way of its huge regeneration plans – only for the decision to be overturned by a government inspector.

The council approved the bid after it was told the revenue would eventually allow the land to be turned over for more than 100 flats.

The council’s planners had blocked the move in 2024 to allow the 48-space car park to remain after it was opened without permission earlier that year.

But the decision was overturned by a government inspector who sided with Parkit Management saying the council had not provided “any substantive evidence” to show the car park was blocking re-development.

The council rejected the plans saying the 24-hour car park would “stand in the way” of its huge regeneration plans for the area which includes up to 1,070 new homes, shops, bars, restaurants and a revamped public square across a 12-acre site linking School Street and Darlington Street.

Work began on the huge Smithgate development, the city’s largest regeneration scheme, at the start of the year and the first phase includes 331 new flats as well as new retail units on the site of the city’s former indoor market in Peel Street as well as the area around the city centre’s Market Square.

A retrospective application – asking to ratify the work that had already been carried out unlawfully – was rejected by planning officers at Wolverhampton Council who said the tarmacked car park was a “far cry” from the 113 flats originally promised and went against the council’s plans to regenerate the area.

The developer said the new flats would still be built in the future but the car park would generate money for the development until “extremely high” construction costs dropped and the economy recovered.

The application went on to say that if the council rejected the car park plans, the site would “quickly revert to being a wasteland and eyesore” with “rubbish, needles, rubble and no lights”.