More than 200 homes to be demolished as Wolverhampton council estate New Park Village is rebuilt

More than 200 outdated maisonettes in New Park Village in Wolverhampton will be demolished and replaced with new homes and flats as part of £42m plans by City of Wolverhampton Council.

The existing maisonettes along the estate’s Longford Road and Ellteron Walk would all be demolished and replaced with a mix of one-to-four-bed homes and one-to-three-bed flats and maisonettes as well as new bungalows after the work received the green light from the council’s planners.

The new homes and flats would be built in two phases around a centrepiece green space at the heart of the new estate.

The remodelled estate would be ‘greener’ according to the council’s planning application, and includes an outdoor gym, play areas and rooftop gardens.

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DSM Demolition has been appointed to start demolition in January with the work expected to last six months. Building work is expected to start in the summer. The first phase includes 98 new homes.

Councillor Steve Evans, the council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for city housing, said: “We are continuing to invest heavily in new and replacement council housing and this scheme will make a major difference to the residents of New Park Village.

“It forms part of our commitment to deliver good homes in well connected neighbourhoods across the city.

“In the long term, the redevelopment will contribute to the improvement of tenants living conditions with the provision of highly energy efficient new homes, better play areas and green space creating an environmentally friendly estate.”

Matt Beckley, partnerships director at Keon Homes, added: “New Park Village represents a fantastic opportunity to transform a tired and outdated living area into a high quality residential community.

The estate was labelled as “uninviting” in surveys commissioned by the City of Wolverhampton Council as long as 20 years ago.

The same surveys said New Park Village’s maisonettes, which were built in the 1960s, were already showing signs of deterioration in the early 2000s and that was just one of several ‘defects’ that included cracking concrete walkways and balustrades that were in urgent need of repair. The homes were also poorly insulated and not fit for modern times.

After the issues had been raised following surveys in 2004 and 2013, it was finally announced in 2019 that much of New Park Village would be demolished and replaced. At the time the new homes were expected to have been built throughout the 2020 winter but have obviously now been severely delayed.

As much as £11m had been set aside for “refurbishments” to the estate until it was realised that would not be enough to fix the problems and it was upped to £25m. Later on, it was deemed that at least £38m would be needed to completely redevelop the estate so it could meet the right standards.