South Bank scheme launch lays foundation for Mayor’s affordable housing pledge
West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin has reaffirmed her commitment to deliver 5,000 affordable homes as she helped to launch the first phase of a major site in Leeds city centre.
311 affordable homes are being built at Points Cross as part of a 928-home scheme within the South Bank scheme.
The wider South Bank scheme plans to double the size of Leeds city centre, although the cancellation of HS2 has dented the investment appeal of the regeneration project.
Brabin was elected mayor in May with a manifesto pledge to deliver 5,000 affordable homes target and in July said the city region had a delivery capacity of more than 8,000 in the next three years.
“It’s going to be a challenge, there’s no doubt about it,” she told TheBusinessDesk.com.
Tracy Brabin at the Points Cross development
“When the manifesto was created last November, obviously we’ve not been across all of that granular detail, but I’m an optimistic person.
“I feel positive that everybody really wants to deliver on this. And if we don’t it will not be because of the want of trying.
“We’re really determined to do our best to to ensure that families like mine, when I was growing up, have somewhere that’s warm and safe that they can spend the rest of their life growing up and flourishing.”
Points Cross is being delivered by the Guinness Partnership and developer United Living New Homes. The first phase will have 193 shared ownership homes and 118 for social rent.
The project will also include commercial and retail space as it seeks to create a community close to Leeds Dock.
Neil Braithwaite, chair of the Guinness Partnership, said: “At Guinness we see that working to help address the national housing crisis is a really key part of our role as a housing association.
“There’s extraordinary demand for our homes and services. We want to do as much as we can to provide high quality new homes and be there for as many people as we possibly can.
“It’s always really exciting to see new brownfield sites like this one and regenerate it to provide housing for the community.
“I’ve lived in York for over 30 years and worked up the road at Asda House for 10 of those earlier in my career, so I’m personally really excited about the regeneration of the South Bank area and about the role that an organisation that I’m a small part of is playing in this.”
