WORK has started on building energy efficient new homes on land that was once home to Dudley’s public swimming baths.

H2B Homes is building new homes on the site in Blowers Green Road after an £800,000 investment by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).

Sixty new homes are being built with 20 per cent classed as affordable under the WMCA’s own definition which is linked to real world local incomes rather than surrounding property prices.

The £15 million development comes after the WMCA investment was used to clear the site and make it ready for redevelopment.

The scheme is the latest to be funded by the WMCA’s Housing Development Programme, which has unlocked former industrial sites across the region for new homes and modern commercial premises.

Dudley News: CGI of how the new properties will look on the former swimming baths site in Blowers Green Road, DudleyCGI of how the new properties will look on the former swimming baths site in Blowers Green Road, Dudley (Image: West Midlands Combined Authority)

Richard Parker, the new Labour Mayor of the West Midlands and chairperson of the WMCA, visited the site to see work get underway and he said: “We need to fix the housing crisis by building more good quality homes that are safe, warm and genuinely affordable.

“There will be many people in Dudley and across the rest of the region who are desperate to rent or buy a good quality property so we have to increase the rate at which we build such homes.

“I’m especially pleased to see how these new properties at Blowers Green include the use of some Advanced Manufacturing in Construction (AMC) techniques. We are encouraging more developers to use this because it means homes can be built faster and to higher energy efficiency standards.

“Schemes like Blowers Green breathe new life into derelict sites and provide much needed new homes for local people but in the longer term we need to vastly increase the size of our social housing sector which is woefully insufficient at present and driving many people into expensive but poor quality privately rented accommodation.”

The site of the new housing scheme is the former location for the town’s public baths which opened in 1926 and closed in the 1960s. It was later occupied by council buildings which have since been demolished. The development has been designed to achieve an EPC A rating - the highest EPC rating for the energy efficiency of a building.

The scheme is thought to be the first of its kind in the region to achieve the rating by using wastewater heat recovery systems and increased insulation.

Robbie Hubball, H2B Group managing director, said: “H2B are delighted to bring this challenging brownfield site forward in partnership with the West Midlands Combined Authority.

“The site will be delivered using our group construction businesses Blyth Group and Blyth Civils utilising local supply chain and employment to promote the local economy.

“In addition, we are pleased to announce that this scheme is forecast to be 100 per cent EPC A rated which given current market conditions, should help support those buyers with affordability calculations whilst delivering much needed stock for the area.”

Councillor Patrick Harley, Dudley Council’s leader, added: “The WMCA funding which cleared the site helped to get this project rolling and we look forward to seeing new homes for Dudley families on the site.”