A FORMER Dudley community centre has been reduced to rubble to make way for housing.

St Thomas’s Community Network, which closed in September 2015, after serving residents in Kates Hill for 26 years, was demolished as part of Dudley Council's mission to create 62 starter homes in the borough after receiving £625,000 from the Homes and Communities Agency.

Plans are now in place to build 33 houses - 30 starter homes and three for sale on the open market - on the Beechwood Road site.

The remaining 32 affordable homes will be spread across three other sites - the former Adult Training Centre in Norton, the former Amblecote House care home in Amblecote and Dudley's Turner House - in addition to a further 14 full market sale homes.

The starter homes, which will be developed under the Government’s New Starter Homes scheme, will be offered for private sale at a 20 per cent discount on their open market value for first time buyers aged between 23 and 40.

Once purchased at this 80 per cent market value, purchasers cannot sell within eight years without having to repay the discount they received at purchase.

Applications for all four schemes have been submitted to the council's planning team and are expected to be determined by April.