affordable housing

One Manchester welcomed Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham to its latest development, to unveil 27 new affordable homes in the heart of Openshaw, including 15 bungalows designed specifically for those living with cognitive conditions.

Andy Burnham praised the social housing and community services provider for bringing the future of housing to Openshaw through the introduction of the development, called South Gate, which brings together a mix of different tenures for the area.

Putting residents at the heart of housing regeneration has resulted in overwhelming support for proposals to revamp the Brookhill Close estate in Greenwich, demonstrating the critical importance of early and continual engagement with communities.

Residents were balloted in February to ask whether or not they wanted plans to go ahead. Of the 99 eligible voters, 87% voted, with 86% in favour of regeneration.

Hyde is planning to demolish 80 homes, replacing them with 272 new flats and houses, as well as improving the layout of the estate. There will be 76 social rented homes for existing residents and London Affordable Rent homes for new tenants. There will also be 64 homes for shared ownership and a further 132 for private sale, which will help fund regeneration.

Editor Victoria Galligan asks Joseph Daniels, CEO of modular homes provider Project Etopia, about the advances in MMC and how a joint venture enabled modular developments to get up and running…

Modular homes Q&A with Joseph Daniels, Project Etopia

Tell us about the factory: what type of properties can be made onsite and where will the modular homes be placed?

The factory will create the panels needed to build modular homes. It has the capability of producing enough panels for 2,000 homes a year, although we have ambitions to grow capacity to 6,000 homes a year. By using a panelised system, the parts can be transported to any part of the country where a house can then be built on-site.

Agile Ageing Alliance (AAA) is a joining of innovators from across the building and housing sectors, as well as health, care, design & technology and finance advisors who have come together to produce a new way of retirement living. Neighbourhoods of the Future from the AAA is a vision which modern methods of construction (MMC) can make a reality, providing much-needed affordable homes in multi-generational developments.

Here, Ian Spero – founder of Agile Ageing Alliance – answers editor Victoria Galligan's questions on how MMC can help to solve the housing crisis.

The Kingspan TEK Building System is providing a precise offsite building solution for one of the country’s largest Passivhaus developments in Bowthorpe, Norwich.

Guy Horne, co-founder and managing director of HS Property Group, answers editor Victoria Galligan's questions on empty homes in the UK…

How many homes are empty in the UK?

According to official figures by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, in March 2019 there were more than 216,000 empty homes across the UK, equating to £53.6bn of property value. This represents a 5.3% increase over the last 12 months, hitting the highest level of vacant properties since 2012.

One of the UK's largest and oldest housing associations has bought 55 affordable apartments worth nearly £17.4m. Durkan completed the sale of 55 residential units at the Britannia Music Site (BMS) in Ilford to Southern Housing Group.

Under the terms of the agreement, the apartments will be completed and transferred to Southern in September of this year.   The units are earmarked for shared ownership or for use under the London Living Rent Tenure developed by the Greater London Authority (GLA).  Following the transaction, Southern will own a total of 148 units at BMS having acquired 93 units in 2017.