Wednesbury's regeneration projects totalling £20m facing significant delays of at least four years

Sandwell Council was awarded more than £20m in government ‘levelling up’ money last year to make improvements to Wednesbury town centre and help build a new 600-home estate in Friar Park.

Most of the work was expected to have been finished by March next year but now the majority of the projects have been pushed back months and even years. 

Sandwell Council said its “complex” projects would be pushed back after the government’s deadline.

The local authority said planned upgrades to Friar Park’s Millenium Centre would not be finished until November 2025, instead of June, and improvements to some of the town’s parks and green spaces would not be done until January 2026 rather than next summer. 

While most of the green space improvements have been completed, centrepiece work to build a new pavilion at the Hydes Road playing field has been pushed back by nine months. 

Councillor Peter Hughes, cabinet member for regeneration and infrastructure at Sandwell Council, said: “A significant amount of the Wednesbury Levelling Up Partnership programme will be delivered by March 2025. This includes our community safety project, several green spaces projects and most of the public realm and urban greening work. We have also launched a new masterplan for Wednesbury town centre.“

"This is a large scale programme with an extremely ambitious 18-month timeline to deliver on £20m investment. 

"Other government funded programmes usually have a much longer window to deliver the scheme.

“This programme is bringing major improvements for the people of Wednesbury and kick-starting the regeneration of the town, and we are proud of what we are achieving in partnership with the government and Wednesbury Levelling Up Partnership Board in a short space of time.”

Public realm work to improve the “attractiveness and safety” of Wednesbury and ensure a “thriving” town centre will not be completed for another 12 months, the council’s estimates revealed. 

The public realm work includes more trees, new paving, lighting, drains, benches and bins for Wednesbury town centre but also improvements to four sites across the town including eyesore empty land in Addison Street, High Bullen car park, the former Spires Health Centre in Victoria Street and the old outdoor market in Union Street. 

The council said the building improvements would take another 12 months while the other public realm, such as new trees and paving, would be finished by spring next year.Over half of the £20m levelling up money will be used to prepare nearly 67 acres of fields in Friar Park Road, next to the M6, to make way for 630 new homes. 

The land was supposed to have been ready to hand over to developers by September 2026 but will now not be ready until December 2027.  Sandwell Council said it expected the homes to be built by 2031 based on the land being ready in June 2024, so the huge project will likely face longer delays.

Wednesbury was among 20 towns and cities across the country to be given a share of levelling up funding by the government – with the Black Country town singled-out for its poor qualifications, shorter life expectancy and lower average wages and productivity. Friar Park was earmarked for funding as a third of residents in the ward have no qualifications – the highest rate in the borough. 

When the funding was announced in September 2023, the ‘levelling up’ project in Wednesbury was described as “ambitious” with the government’s tight March 2025 deadline called a “significant risk” and the council was running the risk of losing some or all of the funding if not spent by March.

Just six per cent of the £20m levelling up money has been spent so far. 

The local authority is waiting to hear whether the money that has been “committed”, which equates to £12.6million, can be spent after March next year as per the levelling up decision. Agreements are already in place for some of the money to be spent during the remainder of 2025 and beyond. 

The poor condition of Wednesbury town centre’s buildings has been “frequently raised,” the council said. 

As many as 13 buildings across the town centre have also been identified as needing massive improvements. The council approved plans to upgrade some of the town centre’s most dilapidated buildings in June and then last month agreed to increase the budget by £300,000 to £850,000. 

The council will be allowed to spend £500,000 of it next year – leaving £350,000 available for this year.The council plans to use some of the remaining money to upgrade a handful of parks, play areas, allotments and a war memorial. The move would ensure “maximum spend” before the deadline, the council said. 

Other ‘fallback’ projects have included repairing the grade II listed Wednesbury Town Hall and Art Gallery and Museum.