B3Living is delivering its largest housing development to date at Cheshunt Lakeside, which is part of a much larger regeneration scheme in the Borough of Broxbourne set to deliver thousands of new homes, as well as a new primary school, commercial facilities and open spaces. Claire Clutten speaks to Jon Hayden, Executive Director (Development) at B3Living, to find out more about this ambitious project.
With the current cost-of-living crisis, rising household bills and recent research from the House Buyer Bureau suggesting that ‘the average homebuyer requires 8.8 times their income to cover the cost of a home’, the need for more affordable housing across the UK couldn’t be more significant, especially in areas like the South-east of England where the affordability crisis is most acute.
Alongside the picturesque Lea Valley Park, a major new urban village is being built — which will feature green corridors, pocket parks and cycle routes — on a brownfield site that was previously 90% concreted over. Once complete, the development will provide 1,700 new homes, 1,900sqft of commercial space, eight football pitch size areas of new open space, a new primary school and £14m of community infrastructure improvements.
The project in Cheshunt is significant for the housing association, as it’s B3Living’s largest development to date, built on the site of what was once home to Tesco’s UK headquarters before the supermarket chain moved to Welwyn Garden City.
Tesco was a major employer in the Borough of Broxbourne, and an important part of the local economy, people who worked at the headquarters lived in the area and spent money locally. Its departure was keenly felt. Jon tells me: “The local authority and Inland Homes needed to find a solution, so Inland came in and assembled most of the land down Delamere Road, where they have permission for 1,700 apartments.”
Cheshunt Lakeside
In addition to the new homes and creation of a green corridor running the entire length of the Lakeside regeneration site, there will be shops and places of work to support the local economy. B3Living’s Quadra apartments are the first homes to be built at Cheshunt Lakeside as part of phase one of the development and the 195 homes consist of 83 for shared ownership and 112 for affordable rent.
The apartments were originally intended for outright sale, but this changed with the arrival of Covid in 2020. Jon explains: “We needed to find a solution with Inland in terms of how the regeneration project could start. B3Living had a number of meetings with Inland Homes and we agreed to work to try to deliver a deal in the early summer months of 2020, just after Covid hit. We had to complete a deal in six to eight weeks and exchange contracts before we could make this particular development happen, so there was a lot of hard work in a very short space of time.”
This involved a lot of online meetings due to lockdown restrictions. Jon continues: “In Autumn 2020 we completed legals on the development. We bought the land off Inland Homes at open market sale — with the help of grant funding from Homes England — and signed a building contract with them, and then over the last couple of years they have been working to deliver the development.”
More affordable homes
Cheshunt Lakeside is a massive regeneration project. Of the 1,700 new homes to be built, only 10% (170) was originally allocated for affordable housing across the entire scheme through Section 106. The reason for this, Jon says, is due to the fact that Inland Homes needed to build a new school and deliver a significant amount of infrastructure across the site, which meant providing the normal policy allocation of affordable homes on the development wasn’t viable.
B3Living saw a real opportunity to dramatically increase the level of affordable homes on the site. In the local area, to buy a home you need 12 times your salary to be able to afford it, says Jon. The housing association conducted purpose work to uncover the local housing need. Jon says: “We did quite a big piece of research, working very closely with the local authority and the key need that came out of that was one- and two-bedroom homes.
“Working with the Borough of Broxbourne and Inland, we’ve delivered 195 affordable homes and those 170, which are part of the Section 106, are yet to be delivered, so that’s really brilliant news because we’re providing greater access to more affordable homes for local people that need it. Through this project we’ve managed to deliver 195 homes of the particular need that the local authority has been looking for and it’s really helped them with their housing waiting lists, identifying local people and giving them access to the housing ladder.”
Design and community consultation
Being heavily involved in the design has enabled the housing association to offer a number of options on this development that it hasn’t been able to on others. The shared ownership apartments have been delivered to a very high specification and feature composite worktops and high quality kitchen units, down lighters and white goods, as well as the latest technology. “We’ve gone above and beyond in terms of what we’re delivering,” says Jon.
The affordable rent homes have also been completed to a high standard. Jon says: “We put carpets and decent floor finishes in every single new-build affordable home. We also either keep the carpets and floor fittings, or put brand new carpets into our existing properties, because we feel that’s really important.”
Customer experience is an integral part of B3Living’s corporate strategy, and keen to engage the opinions of its existing residents, the housing association consulted with its customer community group and asked the question, if you were moving into these new homes, what would you prefer — an ensuite or extra storage space?
Jon elaborates: “Because of the cost of delivering affordable homes, you often don’t ever get a choice of having an ensuite. You’ll have a family bathroom or a downstairs toilet, but you wouldn’t have a bathroom and an ensuite to a main bedroom. The feedback really helped us at that very early stage. We’ve provided a mixture of storage as well as additional bathrooms for people.”
Building specification
B3Living’s corporate strategy has a strong focus on customer experience, delivering quality homes, cutting carbon and building locally, and this particular scheme “ticks practically every box,” says Jon. Electric car charging points have been installed in the parking area outside the apartment block. Jon says: “We’ve also got the infrastructure built in so if more car charging points are needed, all the kit is in the ground ready to connect up, so it’s future-proofed, which is brilliant.”
The apartment blocks achieve an EPC B rating and are extremely energy-efficient. All the homes are fitted with electric boilers and there are solar PV panels installed on the roof. Jon says: “The electricity for the door system, and the lighting in the communal areas and car parks is generated from the solar panels. That means when you have service charges coming out to customers they are dramatically reduced and it’s something they don’t have to worry about because the building is creating the electricity to keep service costs down, which is amazing.”
When the former Tesco buildings were demolished, a high proportion of the hardcore from those buildings was reused in the construction of the new apartment blocks. Jon says: “What was there before has been recycled and it means again from that carbon point of view, you’re not getting lots of lorries bringing in hardcore from elsewhere, it’s literally on the site ready to use.”
Jon adds: “The homes are incredibly warm and we’ve already got customers telling us that they are very energy-efficient and it’s saving them on heating bills, which particularly with the energy crisis at the minute is great.”
B3Living worked with the developer to mitigate any fire-related risks and an independent fire consultant was employed to provide a fire strategy. Sprinkler systems have been installed in every apartment. Jon says: “As a landlord we felt we had a responsibility to do that. That cost extra to put in but it’s worth every single penny in terms of what we’re doing. We’ve also got all the SW1s for the scheme you’d expect and non-combustible balconies.”
Regeneration impact
This is major regeneration project, which will create a vibrant new community, delivering thousands of new high quality homes and a vital boost to the local economy. Thanks to B3Living’s involvement, the number of affordable homes on the site has more than doubled. With the first phase complete, there are another 1,500 apartments to be built on the site, as well a new school and a commercial hub featuring a supermarket, offices and community facilities, providing a plethora of employment opportunities for local people.
Jon concludes: “If you were looking for an archetypal scheme in terms of how to build something that has the best of everything, in my 25/30 years of development, I haven’t had a scheme which has been up to this particular quality and had the ingredients in specification and design this scheme’s had. Yes we’re very fortunate, we were in the right place at the right time in terms of working, but you make your own luck. We’ve found the partnership and quality on this particular development absolutely unbelievable.”
