Twenty homes designed to help elderly and disabled people live independently are to be built in Wolverhampton after the council secured almost £1 million funding.

Wolverhampton City Council has been allocated £900,000 from the Department of Health's Care and Support Specialised Housing or CaSSH fund scheme which will enable the properties to be created in partnership with Heantun Housing Association.

The authority's Strategic Housing Land Review will identify sites to accommodate the 20 new homes and, of the resulting development, 10 of the units will be council owned housing, and 10 will be owned by Heantun.

The scheme was put together with Heantun, as the housing association has successfully designed and delivered family sized wheelchair housing previously.

Once the sites have been identified, work will begin on carrying out site investigations for the new housing and creating detailed designs of the properties.

Housing officers will also work with the council's Health, Wellbeing and Disability Team to ensure the appropriate families benefit from the scheme once it is completed.

Councillor Peter Bilson, Wolverhampton City Council's Cabinet Member for Economic Regeneration and Prosperity, said: "This is excellent news for the city.

"We are delighted to receive this funding that will allow us to work closely with Heantun to create suitable housing that will benefit some of our most vulnerable residents.

"Heantun has a good track record for delivering such schemes and we have already started the initial planning process with them with a view of completing the project as soon as possible."

Nick Crombie, Heantun's Chief Executive said: the council have worked with Heantun over the past 15 years to build much needed homes for people with disabilities on small sites across the city which if left undeveloped are a real problem for the local community.

"We congratulate the Council in securing resources from the government which will make a real difference for families and carers in the city.

"This is a new funding stream but our approach is based firmly on our previous work in designing and developing wheelchair standard accommodation in the city which we have refined through feedback from our tenants."

He added his congratulations to the city and said he was delighted to be working in partnership on this project.

  • released: Thursday 25 July, 2013