Barnet Council's housing partner, Home Group, unveiled major regeneration proposals to transform Dollis Valley. The regeneration programme will deliver up to 1,200 new homes through a combination of flats, houses and maisonettes for sale, affordable rent and shared ownership. New retail and community facilities also form part of the scheme, as well as improved links to the surrounding green belt and residential areas. Home Group was appointed as the Council's preferred partner for the scheme in December 2003.
Servite Houses' new affordable housing development, understood to include the UK's first pre-assembled house brought to a city centre on the back of a lorry, officially opened. The development in Hackney will provide 40 quality affordable homes for the community and has used prefabricated timber-framed techniques, cutting construction times by almost half.
Servite's new development of 33 flats for part-ownership and seven four-bedroom homes for rent was built on a former derelict brownfield site, and has transformed the area into a state-of-the-art housing development over a period of only 18 months. The project, which will house key workers throughout the area, also aims to attract local investment and increase employment through the additional four units that have been built for commercial use.
East Midlands Housing, as part of the Quantum Consortium, announced it will develop the former Fir Tree Hotel site close to the town centre in Northampton Road, Wellingborough, creating 23 new affordable homes in a £2.2 million scheme. Previously a hotel, public house and nightclub, it will be developed to provide 12 two-bedroom and three one-bedroom flats for rent, and eight two-bedroom flats for shared ownership.
The Consortium consists of four developing members - East Midlands Housing, Derwent Living, LHA-ASRA, and Amber Valley Housing - together with three partner members - Advance Housing Association, Foundation HA and Rockingham Forest HA.
Collectively managing more than 30,000 homes across the Midlands and beyond, the Consortium was launched in May 2005 to identify, secure and deliver affordable housing schemes. It secured the 2006/2008 funding deal as a preferred investment partner of the Housing Corporation.
Work on the Fir Tree hotel site is due for completion in summer 2007.
Gateshead looked set to be the first site in the UK to head a housing revolution, with a radical Swedish-designed concept in affordable homes. Called BoKlok, around 90 Scandinavian-style timber-framed houses and flats are to be built close to the centre of Gateshead, to a design pioneered by Swedish construction firm Skanska in partnership with Ikea.
Ikea and Skanska started BoKlok in the mid-90s, to address the need for affordable properties in Sweden and to provide people with high quality properties at a low price. The BoKlok concept is to provide space-saving, functional homes offering good quality at a price which puts them within reach of households earning between £12,500 and £30,000 a year. The BoKlok flats have a flexible open-plan layout, with high ceilings and large windows, giving the apartments a light, airy and contemporary feel.
Last week, Gateshead Council gave the scheme the green light and agreed to sell an area of land, subject to planning, close to Gateshead International Stadium, to the UK's BoKlok partners - Live Smart @ Home, a property company that is part of the Home Group. An application for planning permission is expected to be made next month, with work due to start on site in early 2007 and the first flats being marketed in Ikea's Gateshead store next Autumn.
Homes will be offered on a shared ownership, below market rent or outright sale basis, with legal agreements ensuring that buy-to-let will be actively discouraged.
An affordable housing development in Hamilton was addressing the problem of traffic in town centre living. Supported by £2.2 million in funding from Communities Scotland, the Executive's housing and regeneration agency, the Miller Street development has a busy road on its north side.
In a bid to address the problems of noise and other pollution from the road, architects Hypostyle created an environmental barrier between it and the development's new homes. Each of the 26 homes, which are built in four blocks and are available for affordable rent, boasts a thick, super-insulated, timber-clad wall facing the main road.
As part of the innovative design for Clyde Valley Housing Association, no habitable rooms or entrances look on to the road, and a continuous stone wall acts as a physical barrier between it and the houses. The south-facing sides of the buildings are completely different. Light, timber-frame walls, glazed for maximum solar gain, face onto a safe and sustainable courtyard. These thermal-efficient features, together with communal condensing boilers and solar panels in each block, have substantially reduced tenants' fossil fuel consumption and energy bills.
The plan to boost housing in Dumfries and Galloway, with the construction of over 60 new affordable homes in Castle Douglas, with support of £4.7 million from Communities Scotland, was unveiled. Loreburn Housing Association is developing 61 new affordable homes for rent, including six designed specifically for older people or people with mobility problems. The mix and tenure of the homes have been identified to address local housing demand in partnership with Dumfries & Galloway Council.
The development in Oakwell Road, about a quarter of a mile from the centre of Castle Douglas, is due for completion in August 2008 and the total investment will be £6.73 million.
Scottish Borders received a housing boost with news of the construction of 21 new energy-efficient homes in Tweedbank. Eildon Housing Association is developing 19 new affordable homes for rent and two for low-cost ownership in Cotgreen Road. Two of the homes for rent are being designed and built specifically for wheelchair users.
Two of the homes will include heat pumps, to test their use as an alternative energy source to mains gas. The homes will also include energy-efficient features such as higher levels of insulation and sun spaces, which increase natural light and warmth.
The development is due for completion in November 2007 and the total investment will be £2.6 million.
Approval for over 80 new homes for rent and low-cost ownership, in Fife, was announced. Kingdom Housing Association is developing 79 new affordable homes for rent and four for low-cost ownership in four areas:
Work was underway on a development to bring 14 much needed new affordable homes for rent in Conon Bridge on the Black Isle. The Albyn Housing Society development is being built on the site of the town's former school. The local authority cleared the site, which it transferred to the ownership of the Society, to make way for work.