COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

More than 1,000 homes could be built in Coventry as the city council sells redundant council land for development.



A number of sites have already been sold, including a derelict depot in Foleshill which will be accommodate more than 140 new properties.

These sales have now been developed into a four-year plan to sell 19 plots around the city.

The council says this could result in 1,100 new houses being built, delivering £1.1m a year in revenue.

More than 200 homes are being built on former council land near the A45 in Canley.

Dick Crossman House, a former residential council care home in Willenhall, has also been sold.

Richard Moon, from the council's development team, said: "These are either surplus former council property or land we've held on to for a while.

"We're using the receipts [sale profits] to pay down debt to create a long-term revenue saving for the council.

"It's prudent financial planning... and we're trying to respond to the need for housing in the city."

The council is required to save £3m per year from its property portfolio by 2016/17.

It estimates the 19 site sales will contribute £1.1m per year revenue towards this target.

'Greenbelt threat'

The council is still operating without a core strategy, which would control local house building.

The latest strategy, proposing 11,373 new homes, was rejected by the planning inspector on the grounds that neighbouring councils had not been consulted.

Iain Roxburgh, vice chair of the New Local Government Network and former chief executive of Coventry City Council, said "valuable greenbelt" could be threatened as "Coventry's housing problems cannot be solved within the current boundary... in the medium to long term."

Cllr Kevin Maton, the council chair of planning, said more work with neighbouring authorities "should have been done last year" but was hopeful a strategy would be published early next year.

Green-light given to 1,000 new Coventry homes on empty council land



Plans for 1,000 new homes to tackle Coventry’s housing problems through a sale of empty council land have been approved.

A full meeting of Coventry City Council on Tuesday approved the site disposal of 19 housing development sites, which it is claimed could result in 1,100 new homes over four years.

It is hoped the plan for brownfield sites will alleviate pressure to build on the green belt and green fields - which Labour leaders gave an election pledge to protect.

The plan also aims to help the council hit a £3million per year savings target from its property portfolio by 2017 - through £17.5m of receipts.

Sale proceeds could be used to pay down council borrowing - and add more than £1m a year to the revenue budget for jobs and services.

An officer’s report to councillors states it will help “preserve services for the people of Coventry.”

The council’s Labour leaders have said all but “statutory” services - those they are legally required to provide - are under threat from unprecedented and disproportionate government funding cuts to local authorities of around a third. Those cuts are set to continue beyond 2015.

Sites earmarked for disposal by 2013/14 are at Arena Park, Canley, Swanswell, Broad Lane, and the derelict central depot in Foleshill, which has already been sold and could accommodate 140 homes.

Sites for disposal by 2016/17 include some of the land around Ricoh Arena called the “leisure land”.

Former care home Dick Crossman House in Willenhall has also been sold.

Coventry hopes it can restrict homebuilding over the next two decades to around 11,500 homes on brownfield land only.

But its plans were halted after a government planning inspector stepped in amid concern the target could be too low - and could unfairly force more housebuilding in neighbouring council areas.

Under previous Labour government targets, regional plans resulted in Coventry’s estimated housing need to be 26,500 new homes by 2026.

Councillors hope - after joint working with neighbouring authorities - that Coventry will produce its latest “core strategy” housing targets by early next year.

The authority had hoped their housing strategy would be formally adopted by now - to boost legal protection against developers wanting to build on more lucrative green fields.

Some fear a “free-for-all” for developers until the core strategy is approved.