Cabinet approved the £23.9m Kingshurst health, library and retail building on 17 September. Building starts before the year ends, and 47 more homes follow.

Solihull Council has approved the £23.9 million second phase of the Kingshurst village centre rebuild, and work on site is due to start before the end of the year.

Cabinet took the decision on 17 September and it was published the following day. It is a key decision and it is open to call-in until 25 September. If nobody calls it in, it comes into force on 26 September (decision record).

Kingshurst is in the north of the borough, roughly six miles from Solihull town centre.

What Phase 2 actually builds

The centrepiece is a single building the council calls the Community, Health and Retail building, or CHR. The report puts 1,191 square metres of new integrated health and community space into it. Under one roof it is to hold:

  • a GP surgery, a dentist, a pharmacy and an optician
  • public health and community services
  • a library, moved into the main foyer
  • community rooms and a separate café area
  • a Co-op store
  • offices for Solihull Community Housing, relocating from Endeavour House

Alongside it, Phase 2 delivers six new homes for social rent, a replacement vicarage, a new main road and car parking.

The café was deliberately separated from the library and community space in a redesign last year. The report says that “potentially enables the café to be operated independently and, if appropriate, leased to a commercial and/or independent operator”.

Willmott Dixon will build it, under a JCT 2016 design and build contract procured through the Constructing West Midlands framework. The contractor worked on an open-book basis and the council’s retained cost consultants, Baqus, reviewed the tender. Their conclusion, as the report records it, is that the subcontract packages were competitively tested and the tender “represents value for money in the current market”.

The scheme’s cost-benefit ratio is 2.6 to 1, which the report says puts it in the “high value for money” band under Homes England and government guidance.

Where the £23.868m comes from

The precise figure in the report is £23.868 million. It splits into £21.217 million on the General Fund side, covering the CHR building, the vicarage and a share of infrastructure and project costs, and £2.651 million on the Housing Revenue Account side for the six homes.

Grants are the largest single block. Borrowing is the second largest, and the council carries it.

Kingshurst Phase 2: the £23.868m funding package and the phases either side of it Two-part graphic. The first part breaks down the 23.868 million pound cost of Phase 2 of the Kingshurst Village Centre Regeneration by funding source: capital grants 10.785 million pounds, prudential borrowing 8.392 million pounds, Community Infrastructure Levy 3.000 million pounds, capital receipts and contributions 1.681 million pounds, and reserves 0.010 million pounds. The second part is a timeline of the scheme: September 2024, 25 social rented homes completed on the former Mountfort pub site; December 2025, Kingshurst Park enhancements completed after a 12 week programme; 17 September 2026, Cabinet approves the 23.868 million pound Phase 2 and the construction contract; before the end of 2026, construction is expected to start; Phase 3, a further 47 affordable homes, which can only begin once the Marston Drive building is emptied and demolished. Source: Kingshurst Village Centre Regeneration Phase 2, report to Solihull Council Cabinet, 17 September 2026. Where the £23.868m comes from General Fund £21.217m plus Housing Revenue Account £2.651m, combined by source Capital grants £10.785m Prudential borrowing £8.392m Community Infrastructure Levy £3.000m Capital receipts and contributions £1.681m Reserves £0.010m The phases either side of this one September 2024 Phase 1 completed: 25 social rented homes on the former Mountfort pub site. December 2025 Kingshurst Park enhancements finished, after a 12 week programme. 17 September 2026 Cabinet approves Phase 2 and the construction contract. Build starts before year end. Phase 3, date not set 47 more affordable homes, once the Marston Drive building is emptied and demolished. Source: Kingshurst Village Centre Regeneration Phase 2, report to Solihull Council Cabinet, 17 September 2026. Graphic by The Solihull Post
Grants cover £10.785m of the £23.868m. The council borrows £8.392m and pays it back out of rent.

The largest named grant is £8 million from the West Midlands Combined Authority, approved in July. The council confirmed that figure in its own announcement of the decision.

Two funding pieces were not signed when Cabinet voted

The report is open about this, and it is the detail the announcement leaves out.

  • Enterprise Zone money. The Full Business Case went to Birmingham City Council in July 2026. Written approval from the Enterprise Zone Partnership Board was still “being sought ahead of the September Cabinet”, with a verbal update promised at the meeting itself.
  • Homes England. No bid has been made. A formal bid towards the cost of the six houses will only be submitted now that Cabinet has approved the build contract, and a decision is expected within six weeks of it going in.

Cabinet handled this by delegating. The Director of Economy and Infrastructure and the Director of Resources can sign the grant agreements with the Enterprise Zone, the WMCA and Homes England in consultation with the Leader. They can also issue a letter of intent to Willmott Dixon before the contract is signed, so utility work can be instructed without holding up the programme.

Phase 3 cannot start until this one finishes

The old building on Marston Drive is still in use. Services were kept there deliberately while the rest of the centre came down.

Those tenants have to move into the new CHR building before Marston Drive can be demolished, and Marston Drive has to go before Phase 3 can be built. Phase 3 is 47 further affordable homes. So the six homes in Phase 2 are not the housing story here. The 47 behind them are, and they are waiting on this building.

Planning permission for the whole development was granted on 27 April 2022, under reference PL/2021/03072/MAJFDW.

The council becomes a landlord, and has planned for that

Once it is built, Solihull Council owns and lets the building. Rent from the tenants pays the borrowing. That creates a gap, because the borrowing starts as the building goes up and the rent does not arrive until it is finished.

To bridge it, Cabinet agreed to park the £0.285 million the medium term financial strategy had set aside for Kingshurst in 2026/27 into a reserve, and spend it on borrowing costs across 2027/28 and 2028/29.

From 2029/30 the leftover part of that allocation, forecast at £0.053 million a year, goes into a sinking fund. The report is candid about why: “in a long-term project of this nature there will be future risks and liabilities that will present to the Council as the landlord of the building”. The fund is there for void periods and lost rental income.

The report names the GP services, backed by the Integrated Care Board, and the Co-op as the anchor tenants that make the numbers work.

What it means for you

  • If you live in Kingshurst, expect a building site in the village centre from late this year. The council says 2027 is when residents will see the change take shape.
  • If you use the current GP surgery or the library, nothing changes yet. Services stay in the existing Marston Drive building until the new one is ready, which is exactly why Phase 3 is stuck behind Phase 2.
  • If you want it scrutinised, the window is short. The call-in deadline is 25 September 2026, and the council’s record showed no call-in lodged as at 22 September.
  • If you are watching the money, the two open items are the Enterprise Zone written approval and the Homes England bid. Neither was settled when Cabinet voted.
  • If you are driving through, a new main road and car parking form part of the works. Current disruption across the borough is on our Solihull roadworks and travel page.

Consultation on the scheme has run since the masterplan stage, through the planning application and a compulsory purchase order. The most recent public drop-in sessions were in November 2025, March 2026 and July 2026. Cabinet asked for a breakdown of those sessions to be shared with members.

More council decisions affecting development across the borough are on our Solihull planning news page.

Sources