Final step for controversial Coventry student accommodation set for go-ahead

Coventry City Council could agree the final step allowing a controversial student accommodation to be built. The move would boost the council's rental income from the site but the exact amount has been kept under wraps.

It would allow office block Progress House in Westwood to be knocked down and replaced by a 544-bed block and small retail space. Last year plans for the scheme were met with an outcry and residents lodged more than 80 objections.

Councillors also voted to refuse the scheme permission because of its size and impact on the area. It came after other student schemes with thousands of beds had been agreed to replace old offices in Westwood Business Park.

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But the project got the go-ahead on appeal in March this year. The council, which owns the land, will decide on Monday, May 13, whether to "regear" the lease so the redevelopment can take place.

This involves accepting a "surrender" of the site's lease from RAS Examinations Boards, who are moving, and granting one to the block's developers. The new lease will have a ground rent to the council at a commercial rate, up from the current low "peppercorn" rent, and an "interim rent" while the scheme is built.

The long-term extra income for the council can be used to fund services, a council report for next week's meeting said. The report claimed that delivering "significant financial returns" to support services for people in Coventry is "strategically important."

But the amount of rent the council will charge has not been made public. Instead it is in a separate report. This document is restricted as it relates to the "financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information.)"

The council also claims the move will support the city's "economic development." Consultants say that demand for second-hand offices is low and not looking like it will get better, and purpose-built accommodation supports the University of Warwick, the report says.

Before the appeal result in March, people living near the site launched a petition calling for the council not to agree that the offices could be knocked down until plans for what would replace it had been decided. But council officers say this should only be "noted," as plans did go through on appeal.

They have recommended that the move goes ahead, but cabinet member Cllr Jim O'Boyle will have final say. Fears of a year-long delay to getting the building finished mean a senior councillor has been invited to Monday's meeting to agree that "call-in" does not apply to this decision. A call-in would mean the decision would have to be looked at more closely.

If the council backs the redevelopment, the building could be up and running by the 2026 academic year.

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