A week-long exhibition showcasing the ground-breaking home designs in the Design for Manufacture competition - the Government's challenge to build a good quality home for a construction cost of £60,000 - is to be held at The Building Centre in London this summer.
From 15-20 May 2006, members of the public and industry experts are invited to visit the exhibition, view the winning Design for Manufacture entries, and comment on what homes for the future should look like.
Announcing the exhibition, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said: "I am proud of what has been achieved in the 18 months since I launched the Design for Manufacture competition. The pace of this project has been remarkable and we are now looking forward to work starting soon on the first of the 1,000 new homes to be built. When I first challenged the construction industry to build a quality two-bedroom home for £60,000, there were many people who claimed it just could not [be] done. I now look forward to welcoming those skeptics to this exhibition in May, which will showcase and celebrate the achievements of the developers, designers and contractors who have proved that, indeed, it could."
The Design for Manufacture competition has been run for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister by national regeneration agency English Partnerships. Corporate Strategy Director Trevor Beattie said: "During the past year, the Design for Manufacture competition has captured the imagination of the house-building industry. I have been excited and encouraged by not just the number of people wanting to take part in this challenge, but also the quality of home designs that can be achieved for a construction cost of just £60,000."
So far, preferred developers for nine of the ten competition sites have been selected. In total, the competition will see the creation of over 1,000 new homes.
For further information on the competition and the exhibition see www.designformanufacture.info.
A £22 million project, a collaboration between Leyland based Progress Care Housing Association and United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, will provide 460 custom designed new units of accommodation and 130 refurbished units for hospital staff at Lincoln County Hospital, Grantham District Hospital, County Hospital Louth, and Pilgrim Hospital in Boston.
The development is expected to be completed within two years and will enable the Trust to offer high quality single and family key worker accommodation to hospital staff, student nurses, and doctors in training.
There will be more than 300 new homes at Pilgrim, while at Lincoln there will be 111 new homes with 109 existing properties being re-furbished. Grantham will gain 46 new homes with 4 refurbished units, and at Louth 17 existing units will be refurbished.
A former cottage hospital in Ledbury, Herefordshire, is to be given a new lease of life under the Hospital Sites Programme led by national regeneration agency English Partnerships.
English Partnerships, Ledbury & Area Development Trust, and Advantage West Midlands have entered into a collaborative agreement. This will fund a £1m public-private sector redevelopment programme to enable the conversion of the former hospital building into a scheme of six affordable, shared equity apartments, together with managed workspace targeted at local young entrepreneurs working in the creative industries. A development brief was being drawn up with the aim of offering registered social landlords the opportunity to submit tenders to develop the scheme, in the late spring.
Ledbury Cottage Hospital is in a conservation area close to the main High Street in Ledbury, but has not been in use for four years It will be the first NHS site to be developed under English Partnerships' Hospital Sites Programme in the West Midlands and the seventh nationally.
Bids were being sought from developers to transform a former Hampshire hospital site as part of a nation-wide programme to bring surplus NHS land back into productive use. National regeneration agency English Partnerships took ownership of the Coldeast Hospital site in Lock Heath near Fareham last April, as part of a portfolio of 96 sites across the country. It is now looking for a housebuilder to help create a high quality development of around 150 new homes.
Part of the site currently has planning consent for 150 homes. Around 25 per cent of these are expected to be affordable. Further homes may be available for first-time buyers via a shared equity scheme.
Some of the derelict hospital buildings on the site are set to be demolished, but English Partnerships will be ensuring the preservation of locally listed buildings such as the stable block, dairy cottage, cart shed, and the pillars at the two main gateways to the site.
Accent Group officially opened its new development of 17 affordable homes in Harrogate.
Residents started to move into Notting Hill Housing's 17-home Helix Court development in Kensington & Chelsea. The homes are a mixture of family town houses and apartments. One flat is designed for wheelchair users. Twelve of the units are for sale on a shared ownership basis and the rest are for rent. The total scheme cost was £2.5 million.
The first social housing development for 50 years was opened on the community-owned island of Gigha. Eight homes were built by managing housing association Fyne Homes and ten more houses are planned.
Moat Housing Group signed a deal with Higgins Homes to develop 176 affordable homes in Crawley. With work starting in July, completion is expected in two years.