More than 150 homes are set to be built on two brownfield sites in Stoke-on-Trent thanks to £2.2 million of government funding.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has been awarded the cash from the second round of the Brownfield Land Release Fund (BLRF), a national scheme aimed at making derelict land ready for development.

Leaders say they will spend the money on the council-owned sites in Bentilee and Shelton which have previously been earmarked for housing schemes.

The former Brookhouse Green Primary School site off Wellfield Road in Bentilee has been vacant since the school closed in 2006. Plans for 117 affordable homes on the land, a mix of supported living apartments, flats, bungalows and houses, were submitted by the council in 2022, but a decision on the application has yet to be made.

And the former Olympus Engineering site, in College Road, Shelton, which has been considered surplus since 2020, is set to be cleared to make way for apartments. Council chiefs say that now that the funding has been secured, preliminary work on the sites should start soon.

The council has been awarded the cash from the second round of the Brownfield Land Release Fund (Nub News).

Councillor Finlay Gordon-McCusker, cabinet member for transport, infrastructure and regeneration, said: "Everybody has the right to live in a decent home which is why we are committed to bringing forward these much-needed new homes and raising housing standards in the city.

"In the last 12 months we have made a significant investment in our housing stock with almost 9,000 council-owned homes benefiting from our multi-million-pound capital investment programme, so it would be great to see these long-term vacant sites regenerated, transforming empty brownfield land into thriving new communities."

In a behind-closed-doors meeting last December, cabinet members at the city council agreed to move the Brookhouse Green Primary site from the general fund to the housing revenue account, 'to assist in unlocking the site and to enable the delivery of new affordable homes'.

According to a memo on the planning application, a scope of additional site investigations was agreed with environmental consultants earlier this year. This will establish what site remediations are required before development can go ahead.

The BLRF is aimed at helping councils bring forward derelict sites for housing by helping to cover the costs of things like decontamination, demolitions or infrastructure.

Stoke-on-Trent was previously allocated £700,000 from the BLRF in 2021, to make derelict land off Booth Street, in Stoke, ready for development. The council carried out a public consultation on proposals to build 77 affordable homes on the site earlier this year.

The city is one of four in the Midlands to share £5.4 million from the latest round of the BLRF.

Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook said: "The government is committed to a brownfield-first approach to housebuilding, and we have already taken steps to prioritise and fast-track building on previously used urban land through our proposals for a 'brownfield passport'.

"The funding announced today will support the delivery of thousands of new homes and boost economic growth by unlocking development on scores of abandoned, disused and neglected urban sites across the country."

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