Council leaders say work to bring a fire-hit derelict pottery factory back into use is still continuing.

The Crown Works in Longton was allocated £6.5 million of Levelling Up funding four years ago, and while plans to turn the building into 59 flats were approved in 2024, construction work has yet to start.

Emergency services were called out to a small fire in the building on Tuesday – the latest in a spate of fires involving heritage buildings in Stoke-on-Trent in recent years.

Leaders at Stoke-on-Trent City Council say the blaze highlights the importance of regenerating buildings like the Crown Works.

The authority is working with developer Ovi Homes to bring the Crown Works scheme forward, with the issue of the facility's future operation still unresolved.

Councillor Finlay Gordon-McCusker, cabinet member for regeneration, says he is hopeful that the plans will go ahead soon.

He said: "We are currently working with Ovi Homes and others to find a partner to operate the site and ensure it has a sustainable future.

"I feel more positive about it now than a few months ago, but we still need to cross the 't's and dot the 'i's. It's not just about building something, we have to make sure it will be used, and unfortunately this wasn't sorted out before.

A Draft Artists' Impression Cgi Used For Design Development For Crown Works Longton (image via planning application)

"The fire at the Crown Works absolutely underscores the importance of bringing buildings like this back into use.

"The city of full of heritage buildings which are standing empty and becoming magnets for anti-social behaviour and vandalism.

"We also have a housing crisis in the city, and many of these buildings could be turned into housing for our people."

The Crown Works, formerly the home of John Tams Ltd, closed its doors in 2006 after 140 years of operation, and since then the building has fallen into serious disrepair.

A project to turn the factory into apartments for the over-55s was one of a raft of regeneration schemes in Stoke-on-Trent which were allocated £56 million of Levelling Up cash in 2021.

But so far only one of these schemes – The Goods Yard in Stoke – has been completed.

The Levelling Up funding was originally supposed to be spent by 2025/26, but the government granted the council an extension until 2027.

Ovi Homes' planning application for the Crown Works was approved in 2024, with councillors saying the scheme would boost Longton and tidy up a key gateway into the town centre.

Firefighters were called to the site on Tuesday afternoon following reports of black smoke.

They found a small fire on the ground floor which they extinguished using breathing apparatus and a hose reel jet. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

The council recently launched a heritage task force in response to the recent fires involving historic buildings across the city.