The Building and Social Housing Foundation (BSHF) is organising a five-day study visit to ZukunftsWerkStadt Leinefelde in Germany - the winning project of the 2007 World Habitat Award.
Bursaries are provided by BSHF to help meet the travel and accommodation costs of those selected to take part in the international study visit.
The trip will be 8th - 13th June 2008 and all applications should reach BSHF by Friday, 29th February.
Located in the former East German region of Eichsfeld, the municipality of Leinefelde-Worbis has a population of approximately 20,000. The reunification of Germany in the 1990s fundamentally affected the small industrial town, leading to the collapse of the textile industry and destroying its economic base.
With growing unemployment rates, many inhabitants left for other more prosperous regions in Germany, leaving their flats empty. The low-quality, standardised prefabricated units, which made up the bulk of the housing stock, were unappealing in the developing competitive housing market and those tenants with a higher income began to move out.
Demand for rental flats in the Sudstadt district of Leinefelde fell to 50% of the supply, with little or no economic possibilities for the remaining flats. In 2003, in order to harmonise development and to optimise communal infrastructures and administrative performance, the municipality of Leinefelde and that of the adjoining town, Worbis, joined forces to form the municipality of Leinefelde-Worbis.
Initiated by the municipality of Leinefelde-Worbis in response to these challenges, the ZukunftsWerkStadt project aims to achieve sustainable urban development in the transition from a planned to market economy. It consists of measures to create new job opportunities, improve living conditions and promote affordable and attractive housing opportunities in a diversified and balanced housing market. Overall, it aims to improve social and economic stability and encourage active community life.
For further details on the upcoming study visit please contact BSHF at bshf@bshf.org.
CABE and the Home Builders Federation were calling for entries for next year's Building for Life awards. The Building for Life standard is the national benchmark for well-designed housing in England. The awards recognise and celebrate schemes that demonstrate best practice in housing and neighbourhood design.
Building for Life is an initiative led by CABE and the Home Builders Federation. It is supported by the Civic Trust, Design for Homes, English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation.
For the first time, CABE is asking the public to nominate a well-designed newly built development for the 2008 Building for Life awards and tell CABE about the worst.
The closing date for entries to the Building for Life awards is 29 February 2008. The winners will be announced in September 2008.
Affordable housing specialist Lovell won a national award for its construction training achievements. The Company was the winner of the Best Training / Staff Initiative category in the national Housebuilding Innovation Awards run by Housebuilder magazine and the Home Builders Federation.
Lovell won the award for its comprehensive approach to training, which includes a Craft Academy training programme for its apprentices and a Management Development Academy for trainee managers.
The Company also runs a highly successful Company Mentoring Scheme programme with schools, which gives students an insight into construction industry careers through construction-related project work.
The award judges said:
"Lovell's all-round programme of training and dealing with roles across the business stood out. Its schemes take potential recruits from school through to apprenticeships and then, in many cases, on to management. What caught the eye particularly, was Lovell's attempts to attract entrants into the industry from under-represented groups, male, female, old and young and from all ethnic groups."
New developments in Scotland where work is due to start or has recently got underway include:
Projects completing included Scotland's largest development of homes heated by underground heat pumps, which take heat from the ground to heat homes and reduce fuel bills. East Lothian Housing Association's £6.5 million development of 55 affordable homes in Tranent was opened by Communities and Sport Minister, Stewart Maxwell.