Property round-up: Trafford Housing Trust; Liverpool Combined Authority; Salix Homes; House by Urban Splash; Co-op Angel Square
Work has begun on the construction of 122 new homes in Chorley, off Euxton Road.
The 25-acre mixed-use development, which is being delivered on behalf of Trafford Housing Trust under the Laurus Homes brand, will comprise a mix of two-, three- and four-bedroom family homes, with 50% allocated for affordable rent and shared ownership.
Planning permission for the £19.1m scheme, formerly known as Strawberry Fields, was granted in January 2020, with works originally set to begin in April 2020 under the designated contractor, Seddon.
The new community has been designed to meet housing needs in Chorley, with properties to suit a range of buyers and budgets.
Located in a much a sought after area, with links to the motorway and local amenities, designs for the site also include plans for new playing pitches, public open space and play areas.
With this new scheme, Trafford Housing Trust aims to create a successful and sustainable community, where profits generated are reinvested into its social objectives, including tackling poverty, offering more affordable housing, and identifying employment and training opportunities for local people.
To provide enhanced separation and privacy for existing homes that are accessed from Strawberry Fields, designs also include additional landscaping to the boundary.
Graeme Scott, executive director of development at Trafford Housing Trust, said: “I’m really pleased to see work get under way on this fantastic development in Chorley. It’s a popular location, and new, affordable family homes that meet the needs of local people are much needed in the area.
“Tackling the housing crisis is a priority for Trafford Housing Trust, and this scheme will bring more quality and choice for people who need a place to call home, offering a range of property types and tenures to suit different requirements and budgets.”
Duncan Williams, divisional director at Seddon, said: “After an unexpected delay due to the national lockdown, we’re glad to be back on track, bringing much needed new homes to Chorley.
“By partnering with Trafford Housing Trust and Laurus Homes, we’re working to create a new community, providing high quality, affordable properties for local people, with new public open space for residents to enjoy.”
Work is scheduled to complete at the Euxton Road site in March 2024.
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Steve Rotheram
Nearly 2,500 homes across the Liverpool City Region will benefit from measures aimed at reducing heating bills and carbon emissions, as the Combined Authority has successfully secured £28.5m from government.
This latest funding is in addition to a previous £11.3m scheme which is currently seeing around 1,100 homes across the city region being fitted with the same sort of measures to improve energy efficiency and cut bills. The funding, from the Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy, will be spread across all six Liverpool City Region local authorities and will mean homes will be fitted with insulation, double glazing, upgraded home heating systems, and other renewable and low carbon technologies.
The primary purpose of this funding is to raise the energy efficiency rating of low-income and low Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)-rated homes (those with D, E, F or G) both on the gas grid and off the gas grid. This funding will also support low income households with the transition to low carbon heating.
Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: “At a time when more and more people are at risk of fuel poverty because of rising prices and widespread supply issues, we are doing everything we can to help people across our region heat their homes as cheaply and efficiently as possible without heating the planet, too.
“We’re investing nearly £40m to help put money in the pockets of 3,600 of our most vulnerable and disadvantaged households by improving the energy efficiency of their homes and cutting their fuel bills. This is only a down payment on our ambitions, though. We want all of our housing to be brought up to a decent standard. If the Government are serious about reaching their own net zero targets, they need to work with us to secure the investment we need to help make that happen.”
Cllr Graham Morgan, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority portfolio holder for housing and spatial planning, said: “We are busting a gut on the ground, here in the city region, working with our local authorities to retrofit energy saving measure to as many houses as possible, to save people money on their bills, tackle fuel poverty and help the environment, but there is a limit to how much we can do on our own.
“There are 720,000 homes in the city region and more than 60% of them are at EPC band D and below, which means they are wasteful and expensive to keep warm. We will continue to do all we can but we need government to step up to the plate and enable us to roll these programmes out more quickly.”
The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority is also developing a Modern Methods of Construction programme that will develop cutting edge technology to retrofit energy-efficient measures to existing homes and build new homes with new, state-of-the-art, methods of construction.
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Wynt View site
A new social housing development at the site of a former pub, which closed its doors more than a quarter of a century ago, is now taking shape.
Housing association Salix Homes is working together with Salford-based developer Bowsall Developments and contractor Whitfield and Brown to build a new apartment block at the site of the former Greyhound pub in Partington on Manchester Road.
The three-storey development will comprise 24 two-bedroom apartments, which will all be available for social housing rent.
The site has been vacant for more than 25 years after last orders were called at the pub in 1995, and it was later demolished.
The new development will be called Wynt View, as it overlooks a historic stretch of cobbled road, which was formerly known as the ‘Wynts’ and dates back to the early days of the town. It’s the first new build development Salford-based Salix Homes has built outside of Salford, where it currently owns 8,000 properties.
Terry McBride, development manager at Salix Homes, said: “We’re very proud to see the new homes taking shape at Wynt View and our aspirations for more social housing brought to life, particularly at a time of a housing crisis.
“The shortage of affordable and social housing across the UK is a very real and prominent issue and we desperately need more of the right types of homes that people can afford, so this development will bring 24, modern, high quality homes to the social housing market at a time when there isn’t nearly enough social housing being built.
“This is a site that has been an eyesore in the community for more than two decades, so we hope the local community will also be relieved to see this empty site finally occupied and given a new lease of life. Salix Homes is committed to delivering more much needed affordable housing, and while we have several developments in the pipeline in Salford, this is our first development outside of Salford, and cements our commitment to tackling the housing crisis across Greater Manchester.”
The Wynt View development has been partially funded thanks to a £1.6m grant from Homes England.
Gareth Hadfield, deputy managing director at Whitfield and Brown, said: “Being a locally based company, many of our employees and supply chain partners live within the local area so we are keen to play our part in continuing to provide quality and affordable housing solutions.”
Glenn Rowson, managing director at Bowsall Developments, said: “It has been a real pleasure working with the dedicated team at Salix Homes and we are looking forward to helping them deliver further much needed affordable housing schemes across the region in the future.”
The development is expected to be complete next summer, and the homes will be available for people on the housing register via Trafford Homechoice.
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Stubbs Mews
Modern housebuilder, House by Urban Splash, has completed work at its latest phase of New Islington, a new waterside community for central Manchester.
Stubbs Mews comprises 18, three-storey family homes, each of which comes with an elevated terrace to the rear which overlooks the Ashton Canal. The homes have been precision manufactured in the House by Urban Splash factory using Modern Methods of Construction (MMC). The construction method saw the homes completed in a matter of months, will all 18 properties ready for customers to immediately move into.
Toby Brown, from House by Urban Splash, said: “We are delighted to have added more brilliantly designed homes to this vibrant neighbourhood in the centre of Manchester.
“It’s long been our desire here to nurture a multi-tenure neighbourhood, and our efforts in recent years in creating our three storey Town House homes has paved the way for families to establish themselves in this slice of suburbia in the city.”
He added: “I’m thrilled to see Stubbs Mews complete; just a few of the homes remain on sale and there are a number of layouts for customers to choose from. We look forward to moving our first residents in – people who’ll benefit from all that New Islington has to offer – from the park, marina, Pollen Bakery and the new businesses now opening on the waterfront on the ground floor of the Mansion House block. It’s a great time to join the neighbourhood.”
Stubbs Mews is the latest development at New Islington where the company has already created hundreds of houses and apartments, more than a third of them affordable, as well as cafes, restaurants, a marina, park, and an OFSTED Outstanding primary school.
The show home at Stubbs Mews is available to view from this week.
House by Urban Splash will soon turn its attentions to the final houses being created at New Islington, with details set to be unveiled in 2022.
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Angel Square
Designed to give support centre colleagues greater flexibility and maintain productivity, Co-op’s Hybrid Working Policy has been so successful that the Manchester-based group has begun searching for another business to relocate to it’s One Angel Square site and share the space co-operatively.
The 16-storey building, based in the heart of Manchester city centre, extends to approximately 327,000 sq ft and first opened in 2013. One Angel Square, Co-op’s principal support centre, is one of the most sustainable large buildings in Europe and is built to a BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ rating with very low carbon emissions.
It is recognised as an energy plus building, and has won several awards including Property Week’s Sustainable Achievement Award and BREEAM’s Best Office Building. Some floors within the building are now listed with commercial real estate advisor Avison Young.
Stuart Hookins, property director at Co-op, said: “The environmental credentials of the building have always been important to our Co-op. As part of our drive to make things ‘Fairer for the Planet’, we’re hoping a new co-resident can enjoy the same benefits we do and lower their carbon footprint.
“With the success of our hybrid working policy, a significant proportion of colleagues that previously spent four or five days in One Angel Square are now working flexibly, in support of their wellbeing and productivity. Now is the right time to look for others to share this amazing building.”
Mark Cooke, associate director at Avison Young, said: “One Angel Square is one of Manchester’s most iconic office developments, with its central location and fantastic sustainability credentials, so it’s an excellent opportunity for companies seeking quality working environments with or without occupational fit-out offering immediate occupation.”
