Residents are already beginning to feel the benefits of City of Wolverhampton Council regeneration under the Heath Town estate Masterplan. It will bring new housing, refurbished homes, and improved leisure space. As part of this, the ground and lower ground floors of Ling House have been refurbished to provide new office and community space for the Hope Centre.  The charity, whose roots on the estate go back more than 30 years, has been relocated from its dated Chervil Rise premises, which are due to be demolished as part of the wider transformation.

The centre supports people in need in Wolverhampton through youth intervention, family support, women’s empowerment, older people engagement and volunteering programmes.  Its strength lies in outreach work.  Every activity undertaken at Hope comes from door-knocking and listening to the community’s needs.

The work on the new premises was completed by the council’s Strategic Construction Partner, Wates Living Space, in time for Hope to carry out its Christmas activities. Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for City Housing and Assets, Councillor Peter Bilson, said: “The Hope Centre has a proud tradition of delivering vital support to the residents of Heath Town. “We are delighted we have been able to include these fantastic new premises for them in the Masterplan for the estate.

“The Heath Town regeneration project will transform the area over the next few years. Demolition works are gathering pace and there has been positive interest from a number of respected developers. We appreciate redevelopment won’t happen overnight but people can now see progress is being made.”

Hope Centre Project Manager, Sue Allen, added: “We are over the moon with our new premises and can’t thank City of Wolverhampton Council enough, and everyone else who was involved, for making it possible.

“It is so lovely to welcome people from the community into such a beautiful space.”

Phase one of the Heath Town estate demolition works is underway, with linked walkways, a small number of garages, disused garage court, and an empty leisure building to be cleared by March 2017 to make way for new houses.

Phase two focuses on Chervil Rise and enabling works on this part of the estate are anticipated to start in spring 2017, with demolition scheduled to commence towards the end of 2017. The demolition will comprise 36 maisonettes, the shopping precinct including various offices. Also included are garages, the disused underground car park and disused gym.