13 Aug 2010

A multi-million partnership between Telford & Wrekin Council and Wrekin Housing Trust has been established to develop new shops and houses on the Woodside estate in Telford.

The development of the sites, in Woodside local centre and in the Wildwood area of north Woodside, will help to address the problems created by the existing layout of the estate.

The council has been acquiring properties in Wildwood for several months and will be demolishing 40 of them to enable the new housing development to take place.

The council and the Homes and Communities Agency are working together, through the Housing and Regeneration Partnership Board, to invest in major housing projects across the borough.

Woodside has been identified by the Board as one of its top priorities for housing-led regeneration in Telford and Wrekin.

The council will now negotiate detailed legal agreements with the Wrekin Housing Trust. These will set out how and when the sites will be developed.

The council will also work with the Homes and Communities Agency to ebable investment opportunities for the affordable housing units in line with the priorities in the joint Local Investment Plan.

To complement these development proposals, there is also an ongoing exhibition at the Park Lane Centre of proposals for environmental improvements in the Wildwood and Woodrows area of north Woodside. Proposals have so far been well received and it is anticipated that this work will start on site later in the year.

Councillor Eric Carter, cabinet member for housing, regeneration and prosperity, said: “The continued redevelopment of Woodside is a key priority for the Housing & Regeneration Partnership Board and this is very good news for the community there.

“This will enable council officers, the Wrekin Housing Trust and the Homes and Communities Agency to work together to progress the next stage of the estate’s regeneration with all speed.”

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) is the single, national housing and regeneration delivery agency for England.  

Our vision is to create opportunity for people to live in homes they can afford in places they want to live, by enabling local authorities and communities to deliver the ambition they have for their own areas.  

For more information visit homesandcommunities.co.uk