WORK to transform an empty brownfield site in Lye into new apartments for the private rental sector is underway.

Ruskin Properties is developing the industrial site on Stourbridge Road into 14 two-bedroom apartments and six one-bed apartments.

The company, which specialises in building homes for private rental tenants, acquired the site to redevelop it to provide "good quality housing for local people".

A spokesman for Ruskin Properties said: "The site was a long-standing, vacant brownfield site where previous planning permissions for various uses had expired and failed to come forward over the last ten years.

"The scheme will have a number of positive regeneration benefits.

"This includes the stabilisation of the land from former mine workings with drilling and grouting having been completed on site and boosting the local economy through the employment of 50 construction workers.

"The development will result in the creation of premium quality contemporary apartments for the private rental sector that is in increasing demand and the scheme will further support the continued growth of Ruskin Properties as a provider of homes for private rent within the Black Country."

The development is due for completion in autumn 2021.

All of the new apartments will be available to rent.