Bridge Homes: Wakefield Council’s affordable housing company to close due to ‘challenging’ market
A housing company partly-owned by Wakefield Council looks set to be dissolved, 11 years after it was set up to bring more affordable homes to the district.
The authority said the decision to close Bridge Homes had been taken as it was struggling to compete with developers providing similar housing projects.
The business was set up jointly between the council and Vico Homes, formerly Wakefield District Housing, in 2014 as part of plans to regenerate areas of the district.
A report to senior councillors said: “Over time it has become more challenging for Bridge to secure sites and to be able to compete with other housebuilders delivering similar products.”
Members of the company’s board agreed to dissolve the partnership at a meeting on May 14.
According to the document, Bridge Homes has delivered 331 properties since being established over a decade ago, 99 of which were said to be affordable homes.
The homes were across sites at City Fields, Kettlethorpe, Thornes and Flanshaw.
The partnership also helped bring forward plans for 37 apartments on the site of Pontefract’s former fire station, and 50 on land previously occupied by the Chantry House local government building, near to Wakefield city centre.
The council said the decision to close the company was “a mutual one” and there would be a fifty-fifty profit split between the two organisations.
The authority expects to receive around £3m following the closure.
The report added: “It is the intention that this £3m will be reinvested to facilitate and support the delivery of affordable housing and regeneration projects.”
Cabinet members are being recommended to agree to the dissolution of the company at a meeting on June 17.
Councillors are also expected to agree to grant rights to the Bridge Homes name to Vico for their new development company.
The report added: “The council retains a commitment to supporting the delivery of affordable homes across the district through a variety of approaches.”
Sites where council-owned land is in the process of being disposed of to a registered housing provider include the former Castleford Swimming Pool site, a parcel of land at City Fields, Farm Lane, in Fitzwilliam, and the former Waterton School site, in Lupset.