A move to build nearly 50 new homes on the site of a pallet firm’s warehouse has been revealed.

Morro Partnerships has submitted plans to build 46 new homes for ‘affordable rent’ in Cradley Heath including a mix of one-to-four bed homes.

The site off Newlyn Road is currently home to TSM Pallets has long been earmarked for housing – and has been included in the authority’s plans as land for around 86 homes since 2012.

The pallet warehouse is part of an industrial estate that also borders a traveller site.

A statement included with the application said: “The site is brownfield in nature and through the proposed redevelopment makes efficient use of an underutilised commercial site. 

“This full planning application delivers a scheme whose function, form, and scale commensurate with the national and local planning policy objectives and represents a sustainable form of development.

“The delivery of 46 affordable socially rented homes, in a time of pressing need for Sandwell Council to increase in the choice and type of homes. 

“A total of 100 per cent of the new homes are affordable socially rented homes providing the much needed home for those in housing need.”

A disused petrol station opposite the pallet warehouse was sold at auction in 2023 and later converted into a hand car wash and tyre shop.

A planning application to build 139 new homes on the TKB Industrial Estate in Newlyn Road was approved in 2011 but the work was never carried out.

Elsewhere in Cradley Heath, plans have recently been revealed by Sandwell Council to demolish and rebuild the Haden Hill Leisure Centre as part of a £24m refurbishment.

The nearly 50-year-old facilities partially closed in 2023 after its swimming pool roof collapsed and shut its doors last year ahead of the planned upgrade. The new leisure centre is expected to open in 2027.