‘ESSENTIAL’ new affordable homes are coming to Rugby – one of a series of developments aimed at easing the region’s housing crisis.
The former General Electric Power Conversion UK site in Projects Drive will be turned into a 108-home development including 72 social rent properties – the most affordable type of housing – with the rest to be made available for shared ownership.
The six-acre development, funded by a £2.6million investment from West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker, is also being backed by Homes England and will feature a mix of apartments, maisonettes and houses.
The scheme, which is being built by Morro Partnerships on behalf of not-for-profit housing provider Orbit, will rehouse some of Orbit’s existing customers from the nearby Hollowell Way estate, which has been earmarked for demolition and redevelopment.
The development is part of Mr Parker’s project to build 2,000 new social homes every year across the region by 2028, to help tackle the housing crisis.
He said: “Everyone deserves a safe, warm place to call home, but we’re facing a housing crisis because of years of chronic underinvestment in social and affordable homes.
“This has left too many families stuck in temporary accommodation or poor-quality private rents. That’s not acceptable, which is why I’m committed to building the genuinely affordable homes our communities so badly need.
“Projects Drive is the latest example from a new wave of investment I’m making to tackle this problem. And it’s not only delivering essential homes but also helping to regenerate the local area and providing work and training opportunities – supporting my mission to get 93,000 people into quality jobs over the next decade.”
Phil Andrew, chief executive at Orbit said: “We are proud to be working alongside Mayor Richard Parker and Morro Partnerships to deliver much-needed, quality, affordable housing in Rugby to help meet local housing needs.
“This is the first step in an exciting long-term investment for this community that will help provide more people with good quality homes that they can afford, in a place that they are proud to live, and we look forward to getting work underway.”
To carry out the redevelopment, Morro plans to create new jobs and construction apprenticeships by working with local recruitment partners, colleges, education providers and third sector organisations to open up training and job opportunities for hard-to-reach people such as care leavers and ex-forces personnel.
Simon Preston, managing director at Morro Partnerships, added: “This scheme demonstrates our commitment to building high-quality, sustainable housing while creating local job and apprenticeship opportunities as well as enhancing the local area through our social value initiatives.”
In November, Housing Secretary Steve Reed announced up to £1.7billion for the region’s ten year Social and Affordable Homes Programme, which could fund at least 10,000 affordable new homes across the West Midlands over the coming decade.
And the Mayor’s mission to build more social housing secured a further boost in October with a new £40million Social Housing Accelerator Fund.
The money, secured by cutting red tape surrounding existing housing funds, will be used to convert 1,000 properties that are ready for occupation, under construction or soon-to-be-built, to social rent homes.
Those will be on top of over 750 social rent homes the Mayor has already unlocked since taking office in May last year as part of his ongoing ‘Homes for Everyone’ priority.
