Willmott Dixon's expanding pipeline of housing work is giving an employment boost to the West Midlands with 42 new jobs created in the past six months at the company's Coleshill office.

The latest project to be secured is a £6.6m contract for The Wrekin Housing Trust to create an extra care apartment complex containing 52 homes in Wombourne, just south of Wolverhampton. It follows recent appointments to build extra care homes for Housing 21 in Warwickshire, plus 37 new homes of all tenure mixes for Walsall Housing Group on Fisher Road.

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Willmott Dixon's Midlands team is also working with Chevin Housing Association in Derbyshire to build 197 homes for the care market and the surge in demand for this specialised housing comes as a recent House of Lords Committee said the UK is "woefully underprepared" for the challenges presented by an ageing society, and that the benefits of longer life were in danger of being compromised by a "series of crises" in public services.

Simon Leadbeater, managing director of Willmott Dixon's housing company in the Midlands, said: "Government data tells us that by 2030, we will see a 50% rise in the number of over-65s and a doubling in over-85s. Developing new communities such as these schemes we have just won will create environments in which people can enjoy their retirement years to the full, while also having support when needed."

(CD/JP)