The 11 storey office block has stood empty since 2019, and council leaders say acquiring it could support the wider regeneration of Etruscan Square and Hanley city centre.
What’s new: Stoke-on-Trent City Council is planning to acquire Blackburn House, the vacant 11-storey office building next to the Etruscan Square regeneration site.
Why it matters: Council leaders say the building occupies a strategically important location and that its continued vacancy could undermine regeneration plans for the surrounding area.
What’s next: The council will make an offer based on an independent valuation. If the owner does not accept it, the council could pursue a compulsory purchase.
This article is based on reporting from the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), a BBC funded initiative set up to strengthen reporting on local democratic issues. The Staffordshire Signal has taken part in the scheme since September 2026, which means we're able to draw on a selection of LDRS stories alongside our own.
Council chiefs are planning to purchase a vacant city centre office building.
The 11-storey Blackburn House in Hanley has been empty since HM Revenue and Customs closed down its Stoke-on-Trent office in 2019.
Plans to convert the tower into 130 flats were approved last year, but work on the scheme has yet to start.
Now Stoke-on-Trent City Council is set to acquire the building, which stands next to the Etruscan Square regeneration site.
Council leaders say the acquisition will support the ‘wider regeneration objectives’ for the area.
The council will make a final offer for the building based on an independent valuation.
If this offer is not accepted by Blackburn House’s current owner, the council will look to make the case for a compulsory purchase.
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According to a council report, the building occupies a ‘strategically important location’ next to Etruscan Square, and its continued vacancy and the associated anti-social behaviour would undermine the area’s regeneration.
The council’s development partners PfP Igloo and Genr8 are currently drawing up new plans for affordable homes on the Etruscan Square site, with work on the project set to start next year.
Etruscan Square was allocated £20 million from the government’s Levelling Up Fund in 2021, most of which has yet to be spent.
Planning committee members at the city council granted prior approval to change the use of Blackburn House from office space to residential, to create 130 self-contained apartments, in March 2025.
The council has not said what it plans to do with Blackburn House once the purchase has been completed.
Councilor Finlay Gordon-McCusker, cabinet member for regeneration, said: “We’re working to support the development of Etruscan Square and prevent it from being blighted. In the past, Etruscan Square has been quite isolated when we need to look at it as part of the wider city centre.”
But Cllr Gordon-McCusker gave assurances that the first phase of the Etruscan Square development would not be contingent on the purchase of Blackburn House.
While a new planning application for the project has yet to come forward, it is understood that development will start at the Charles Street end of the site. The former Iceland supermarket is being demolished to make way for this scheme.
Written by Phil Corrigan, Local Democracy Reporter.
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