Eastwood social housing project takes step forward
Plans have been lodged for a new apartment block to be built on the site of a former controversial nursery in Eastwood to help cut a housing waiting list.
Over the last couple of years, Broxtowe Council has spent more than £1.36 million snapping up various sites in Eastwood to boost its social housing stock.
The authority owns council homes, managing around 4,400 properties across the borough, and is aiming to soon add about 25 new properties to its portfolio as part of a larger project.
Two of those sites, in Church Street and Lawrence Avenue in Eastwood, appear to be moving forward, including a former nursery building that received a damning report by the education watchdog three years ago.
The council purchased the Wollaton Village Day Nursery building on Church Street, for £725,000 in September 2025.
Education watchdog, Ofsted, temporarily suspended the nursery’s registration in early 2023, after its inspection found staff were instructed to restrain children with emerging SEND, cleaning products were within easy reach of children and there was easy access to the site for unauthorised people.
While the service on site re-opened, the nursery later closed and now, the formal plans to build a three-storey apartment block on the site have been submitted by the council for approval.
If approved, the block will provide 12 apartments, including nine one-beds and three two-beds and documents say there is currently a notice to demolish the empty nursery approved for the site.
The authority has rolled in a smaller housing scheme with the plans for the old nursery.
The council plans to demolish 14 garages it owns in Lawrence Avenue to make way for two more new homes.
The plans for these properties have also recently been submitted, where two three-bed homes are proposed to be built, replacing the garages.
These two applications form part of the council’s wider social housing project to help bring down its waiting list, which currently sits at 1,592 households – up from 1,122 last year.
Land off Cross Street in Eastwood’s Hill Top has been earmarked to provide ex-military accommodation, after the council bought the empty parcel in October 2024.
While no formal plans have been submitted for this yet, the council wants to build either six one-bed flats or four one-bed flats and two, two-bed flats on the site, with council leader, Milan Radulovic (Brox Alliance) previously saying ex-veterans facing homelessness is a “national disgrace”.
The ex-forces apartments are expected to cost around £1.59 million, with some financial support from Homes England.
Over at 84 Church Street, the former Nottinghamshire County Council daycare centre acts as the fourth site in the wider project, which sits “obsolete” and has lay empty for months.
In April 2026, the council bought it for £325,000 with the aim to spend £700,000 turning the site into four one-bed apartments and a two-bed bungalow.
According to the authority in June 2026, there were 126 ‘general needs’ housing applicants who were in need of a one-bed, two-person property, with 92 households requiring a two-bed home.
A decision on the two applications currently waiting for approval will be made at a later stage.