English Partnerships announced details of the Design for Manufacture Competition along with the first four sites which will be used to pilot the construction of sustainable, well-designed, good quality homes for around £60,000. The competition is being run by the national regeneration agency, on behalf of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
Organisations and consortia are being invited to bid for the right to construct on one or more new developments on sites which are owned by English Partnerships and other public-sector partners.
Around 470 homes will be built on the initial pilot sites which are located at:
An additional list of sites will be announced at a later stage.
A minimum of 30% of the homes will be constructed for a target cost of £60,000. The remainder will comprise larger and smaller units, which will be built using equivalent processes and cost efficiencies. The figure of £60,000 is a target construction cost only, not a development cost or sale price.
The competition will be open to all types of building methods, suppliers, and materials. As a minimum, all homes must follow the principles of the Urban Design Compendium, published by English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation in 2000, and achieve the BREEAM Eco Homes standard of "very good," or the equivalent of.
Final entries will be chosen by an independent judging panel alongside community representatives from each of the sites. The final recommendations will be put to Ministers for approval. It is expected that work on the first homes will start in the first half of 2006.
London & Quadrant HT awarded a £16.2 million contract to construction company Galliford Try, to build 122 affordable homes in Peckham. The scheme will provide 68 homes for shared ownership; the rest will be for affordable rent.
Maidstone HT selected Kier Partnership Homes as its partner for a £34 million regeneration scheme covering more than 320 new dwellings on the Parkwood and Coombe Farm Estates.
Under the partnering agreement, KPH will construct 165 new homes at Parkwood, and 163 new homes at Coombe Farm. Each development will comprise over 100 houses ranging from two to four bedrooms, plus one and two-bedroom flats.
Toynbee HA obtained outline planning permission for the £26 million mixed-use development of 160 homes in Forest Gate, London. Nearly 80% of the homes will be affordable.
The sustainable development of 114 houses and flats by Black Country Housing & Community Service Group will feature extra thick roofs and wall insulation that will reduce fuel bills by up to 50%, and rooftop windmill generators that will cut reliance on the national grid for electricity. The £12 million scheme will be on a six acre former multi-storey housing block acquired from Birmingham Council.