Housing milestone as work gets underway on new council homes

Work has started on the first council houses to be built in Hull in a generation as developers seek around £10m of Government funding to keep an ambitious housebuilding programme on track.

Residents and councillors who have campaigned for 15 years for the site on Junella Fields, in west Hull, to be developed, said it was a huge milestone.

The site's developer, Keepmoat Homes, is heading a new bid for Government funding to keep building houses as part of the Gateway regeneration scheme, which will be axed this April, following Government cutbacks.

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Keepmoat, which was Gateway's lead developer, is submitting the bid, thought to be worth around 10m, to the 1.4bn Regional Growth Fund on Friday.

If successful the bid, which is supported by Hull Council, Places for People, Construction Works and Hull College, will keep some of the original programme going.

Partnership and land director David Carmichael said the money would be used to build around 1,300 new homes and create 500 jobs. The plans include 300 new affordable homes for rent or shared ownership, with the rest being private.

Mr Carmichael said the proposals "could hit the ground running", adding: "We see it as about the continuation of the success that is already being delivered in the Newington and St Andrew's area.

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"It is primarily about the creation and safeguarding of jobs within the Hull area.

"It is a programme that can be delivered straight away because the plans and necessary information are already in place and Keepmoat already has a strategic agreement in place with Hull to deliver this."

A successful bid would see work continuing on Woodcock Street phase three, new homes and refurbishment of existing properties on Hawthorn Avenue, and the continuation of development on the Amy Johnson site and on the Riley College site to the north. It would also see 50 to 60 apprentices taken on in construction.

Mr Carmichael warned that an unsuccessful bid could jeopardise a planned 150m investment in the city over the next eight to 10 years.

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He said: "There will be real question marks about how sustainable that investment will be if other parts of the regneration jigsaw do fall away through funding being withdrawn."

Resident Marian Carlson, who lives next to the site, turned the first sod on the Junella Fields development yesterday.

She said: "Years ago it was a park but the kids just rived it to pieces and it was left as it is for horses, mucky mattresses, baths, you name it. My back way is on the site and it's disgusting. We've been swarmed with rats in the past.

"We've been campaigning for this alongside local councillors for 15 years.

"It is a wonderful day – a new beginning for everything."

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The new houses and bungalows are being built to the latest energy-efficiency standards which can help cut heating bills by 75 per cent.

Of them 18 will be council houses and 20 will belong to the Housing Association, Pickering and Ferens Homes, and all of them will be available to rent.

St Andrew's councillor Nadine Fudge, whose ward includes the Junella Fields site, added: "We have been campaigning for development on this site for a long time so this is a huge milestone.

"It signals a massive improvement to the area as well as creating more local jobs."

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The development and two others in Hull, creating 19 further council homes at Lingdale Road and Preston Road, have been built on the back of a 3.3m grant from the Homes and Communities Agency.

33m scheme still on course

Work continues apace on a 33m house-building programme in the East Riding, the largest construction project ever undertaken by the local authority. Properties are being built on 31 council-owned sites, including 66 in Bridlington, 21 in Driffield and 54 in Goole. By May, 265 are expected to have been handed over, with the remainder completed by the end of the year.

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