Developers encouraged to buy up Stoke-on-Trent land in £5m council sale to end 'degeneration'

DEVELOPERS and property tycoons will be urged to buy up cleared land worth £5 million to end long-term 'degeneration' and build hundreds of new homes in the city.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has invited scores of developers to its housing summit at the Britannia Stadium this month and hopes to secure buyers for acres of its neglected clearance land.

Members have now approved plans to sell crucial development sites which will be promoted at the summit event. They include:

A five-acre plot near Lichfield Street, in Hanley, below, earmarked for a Canal Quarter;

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The 10-acre former Churchill China plot in Waterloo Road, between Hanley and Cobridge;

Cleared land in Hanley's Bucknall New Road, Dresden Street and Ludlow Street – part of the flagship City Waterside project.

The authority believes the Canal Quarter land could be worth £1 million, while land in City Waterside has a combined value of £4 million.

Councillor Adrian Knapper, cabinet member for health who used to represent the area, said: "I hope residents are kept fully informed as they deserve the courtesy of being told what is going on. The people who actually live in this area have been really patient with the local authority.

"Housing renewal was a 15-year programme which was unfortunately cut back due to austerity measures, but it's good news that these sites are now going to be used."

Karen Poole, secretary of City Waterside residents' association, said: "Patient doesn't begin to describe it. We've been campaigning for this for a number of years and we've been very frustrated at the stagnation.

"The more developers they can get to be interested in building sustainable, affordable housing in City Waterside, the better."

Cabinet member Andy Platt, who lived in the area now known as City Waterside 30 years ago, said: "I lived in a rented property with no central heating and damp on the walls. It was so small you couldn't get a three-piece suite in the front room.

"That's what it was like. And that was one of the cleared properties. Some of these properties were not fit for human habitation. I also had a landlord charging illegal rents. And that's what we were faced with.

"A lot of these private rental properties have poor landlords who do nothing to the properties and over-charge the tenants, predominantly the poorest residents in the city. It's a disgrace and it still goes on today.

"I'm pleased this land is now going up for having new properties put on them, to modern standards and with the highest level of energy efficiency – because that will give our people decent homes to live in the future." Councillor Mark Meredith, cabinet member for economic development, said: "Residents have suffered over many years as a result of the degeneration of this area, and obviously the demolition to date.

"The Government pulled the rug from our feet in terms of its proposed investments in housing and this council should be congratulated for finding innovative ways of using land to get the housing market back off the ground and trying to provide the decent homes some people in the city really do need."

Developers and investors will be given sales packs at the summit and offered the chance to speak to city council officers about ways they can be supported to speed up building.

Council and Labour leader Mohammed Pervez will host a 'working breakfast' with developers at the event on October 15. Mr Pervez said: "Effective marketing of the land will be key to get maximum return on these sites."