Andy Street, Mayor of West Midlands, has been welcomed on site at a brand-new housing development in Dudley, where the UK's leading mixed tenure developer, Countryside, is building 153 affordable homes on behalf of Midland Heart.

Andy Street visited the site at Cochrane Road as the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) continues its drive to increase the region's supply of high quality, affordable housing. Using money secured from the Government, the authority is delivering a brownfield first strategy, regenerating former industrial sites for new homes and jobs while helping to protect the green belt.

Building work at Cochrane Road began in 2020 and will transform two former brownfield sites into a new neighbourhood of family homes, which will be available for shared ownership and affordable rent with Midland Heart Housing Association.

The new development forms part of a framework partnership between Countryside and Midland Heart to bring 1,000 new affordable homes to the Midlands. Launched in 2019, the partnership currently has 700 homes under construction with a further 200 in contract and an additional 300 in the pipeline.

Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands and chair of the WMCA, said: 'Across the West Midlands we know we need to build more affordable homes and we know we need to do that on brownfield land wherever possible to protect the greenbelt.

'That's why Countryside's development on Cochrane Road is so encouraging, and it was brilliant to visit and see how work is progressing. The WMCA is committed to working with developers to help bring forward more derelict brownfield sites for housing, by using cash secured from the Government to clean up the land and get it ready for development.'

Adam Daniels, Managing Director, West Midlands, Countryside, commented: 'There is increasing demand for new homes across the West Midlands and the people in our region need and deserve for those homes to be high quality and sustainable, but for them to also be situated within safe and strong communities.

'We are very proud to welcome Andy Street to Cochrane Road and for him to see first-hand how this exceptional development fits within his ambitious housing strategy. Together with Midland Heart, we are taking a brownfield-first approach and transforming the two sites at Cochrane Road into thriving new communities - a partnership model that we will continue to emulate to ensure a robust supply of high quality affordable homes across the West Midlands.'

Chris Miller, Director of Development at Midland Heart, said: 'We're proud to be working in partnership with Countryside, bringing much needed affordable homes to families across the Midlands. Despite the challenges faced over the past year, it's great to see the progress being made at Cochrane Road and we're looking forward to welcoming families into these new homes this year.'

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Countryside Properties plc published this content on 07 September 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 10 September 2021 10:21:04 UTC.