School adds scale to Countryside’s New Broughton scheme

COUNTRYSIDE Properties’ £500m New Broughton redevelopment is now reaching a scale to make it a more attractive proposition to families, according to project director Les Brown.

The firm held an event yesterday to mark the completion of the new 420-capacity River View Primary School which also has a 60-place nursery and a language centre which is available both during and after school hours.

A community park with a children’s playground and adult play area has also been completed. Both the school and the park were designed by Urban Vision and built by Laing O’Rourke on behalf of Salford City Council.

Brown said that the school would help to bring in 450 parents and grandparents to the area which will help to bring in business for shop owners and for other nearby facilities.

The scheme, which began in 2003, has come under some criticism for the slow pace of development, has seen 709 new homes built since the project was started.

Some 273 of these have been sold on the open market, with the rest being made available either as social housing or through affordable rent schemes through organisations such as Salix Homes, Contour Housing and Great Places Housing Group.

Moreover, with a lack of grant funding in place to fund future public sector housing elements which had previously gained cash through initiatives such as Housing Market Renewal, the project’s long-term aim of providing 3,500 mixed tenure homes in the area currently looks rather lofty.

However, Brown argues projects such as this are always going to be long term in their nature. He also said the New Broughton Village  “is now taking on a scale and a mass  – and it is being taken care of,” he told TheBusinessDesk.com.

“A huge amount of that is due to the people who live there,” he added.

Countryside Properties initially became involved with the project after carrying out mixed tenure regeneration schemes in the Docklands area of London.

He said the aim in Salford had always been to have a mix of tenure types, weighted 60:40 in favour of “economically active” residents.

“We needed to bring in other people. The area was previously predominantly made up of affordable housing, but in order to keep shops open you need those jobs and you need to have people to fill them.”

The company plans to deliver a further 223 new homes between now and March 2013 and Brown said that a slight easing of conditions in the mortgage market had helped to spark sales to private sector buyers.

“People need deposits and a very good credit rating to get a mortgage. There are some people out there who think they’re a good bet but then they find there’s something they did five years ago like miss a credit card payment or a mobile phone bill that comes back on them.”

He said the firm only held a limited amount of stock to ensure demand wasn’t weakened by building too many empty units.

“We’re not quite building to order but we might only have eight vacant at any one time and we are increasing our pace ever so slightly,” he said.

“Our prices have come down but if anything the spec has gone up.”

Speaking at yesterday’s launch event, Salford City Council leader Cllr John Merry said: “We know from experience that access to good primary school facilities can really kick start a community and this school will do just that. I am delighted to see this development come to fruition.”

Richard Cherry, deputy chairman of Countryside Properties, said: “New Broughton has come a long way since our early conversations with Salford City Council in 2003.

“You can build homes, and you can build a school, but it is when you combine these with other elements such as local shops, places to meet and a new park, that you start to create the infrastructure for a sustainable and vibrant community.”

Spending figures recently released by Salford City Council show that it has recently made two loans available to Countryside Properties for more than £1m.