Development

Frenetic year with many challenges

 

"2006/2007 was a frenetic 12 months with many challenges," says NCHA’s Director of Development Steve Walker.

It was the first year of operation for the bidding partnership of 15 associations led by NCHA and the Longhurst Group which began converting its 2006/2008 allocation of more than £54 million into 1,350 new homes –  869 for rent and 478 for shared ownership. NCHA will build 473 of the total at a cost of more than £17 million.

Progress was held up in the first period of the year by programme delays. "We were left with stiff targets for spending and implementation for the rest of the year," says Steve Walker, "but we caught up by the end of the period. Spending £7.07million against a target of £5.7million."
 
Alongside the main development programme, NCHA’s build for sale venture, LETS Select, has completed 20 homes for sale and has a further 204 in the development pipeline, side by side with rented flats and homes for shared ownership on the Association’s mixed tenure sites in Leicester, Loughborough and Northampton. "LETS Select has worked very well," says Steve Walker, "and it is going to expand as it helps us build the mixed tenure communities that have become a defining feature of our work."
 

The East Midlands has its own housing hot spots notably in Leicester and Northampton where costs are rising and land is more difficult to acquire.
 
With costs going up, the possibility of local authorities, builders and ALMOs competing for funding and the Housing Corporation squeezing grant to get more homes for its money, it’s not going to get any easier he warns, "But we will continue to meet all the challenges thrown at us."

 

Further reading

 

12th July 2007: Robin Hood opens new £5 million housing scheme

4th July 2007: Award-winning Leicester development opens

23rd March 2007: MP to open £15 million affordable homes
22nd September 2006: Gordon goes back to old stomping ground

 

 

Click here to return to the Annual Report 2007.