Decision due on Keepmoat’s Willenhall regen plans
Council-backed proposals for more than a hundred homes clustered around the former Ingersoll Rand factory on Moat Street have been recommended for approval.
The former Willenhall lock works, which has been closed for more than two decades, was demolished earlier this year to make way for a residential-led regeneration scheme backed by Walsall Council and Keepmoat.
Those demolition works came less than a year after Walsall Council had taken the decision to buy up the dilapidated factory site along with four others using compulsory purchase powers, part of a plan to tackle “challenging” land ownership issues which have hampered regeneration efforts for decades.
Once the epicentre of Willenhall’s historic lock-making industry, the Moat Street works have been vacant and decaying since a large fire ripped through the building in 2016.
If councillors give the scheme the go-ahead at a meeting on Thursday, 30 July, 109 homes will be built at the factory and at the other sites bought up by the authority last year.
The fire damaged Moat Street Ingersoll Rand works were pulled down in 2025. Credit: Walsall Council
Walsall Council successfully secured £20m in levelling up funding from the government to support a 10-year strategy for housing growth in Willenhall in 2022, with outline proposals then approved in 2024.
“The Willenhall Framework Plan presents a vision and aspiration for the future of Willenhall and aims to deliver large scale, comprehensive and coordinated growth across the town,” said a planning statement submitted with the proposals.
“Importantly, it identifies that the multiple ownerships across the area make comprehensive and coordinated development very challenging and, together with low property values, makes development at scale unattractive to the private sector. Walsall Council and its partners recognise that the Public Sector must intervene to ensure that the vision and objectives are delivered, including through investment, planning, provision of infrastructure, and use of its statutory powers.”
Arcadis and BM3 have worked with Walsall Council on the proposals, part of a project team also includes Savills, GSA, Tatum, Allsop Avery, Brindle & Green, NJC and Engage Planning.
A decision is due on the application at Walsall Council’s planning committee on Thursday, 30 July.
Documents and plans relating to the application can be found on Walsall’s planning portal using reference: 25/1494
