A leading housing association has pledged to build around 645 homes in rural areas across the South West over the next three years.
As the housing sector celebrated Rural Housing Week last week — a national campaign designed to shine a spotlight on the vital importance of housing associations for rural communities — LiveWest outlined its plans to invest in rural economies.
Over the past two years, LiveWest has demonstrated its commitment by building 388 homes in rural areas across the South West region.
The largest affordable housing provider in the region has invested over £39.9m during the last financial year, having built 193 homes in rural areas. The total is made up of 108 in Devon and 85 in Somerset.
In the next three years, LiveWest is planning to develop 158 homes in Somerset, 251 in Devon, 182 in Cornwall and 54 in the West of England. It means around 20% of LiveWest’s development programme is made up of homes in rural areas.
Gareth Jones, Development Director for LiveWest, said: “Delivering vital affordable housing in rural areas is one of the cornerstones of our development programme at LiveWest.
“We know that rural housing provision not only brings social and economic benefits to communities, but to the country as a whole.
“Homes in rural areas enable people to remain living in an area where they currently live or work, or to return to somewhere they grew up and have family connections.
“Rural Housing Week is an opportunity to talk about how rural housing developments offer essential homes to local people and underlines how vital new homes are in supporting thriving rural communities and services.
“An affordable and decent home is essential for people across the South West to live well and thrive.
“We have ambitious rural development plans with a focus very much on the delivery of new affordable housing for rent so that local people can find a home they can afford.
“Alongside our ambitious plans to build around 645 homes in rural areas in the next three years, we are also focusing on their energy performance to ensure all our new properties are affordable to heat and comfortable to live in.”
In Devon, LiveWest acquired 14 homes in Merton from local contractor Gilbert and Goode. With the benefit of grant funding from Homes England, the homes were turned into social rented homes to meet local need.
In Cornwall, a county with very high housing need, 30 homes are being provided in the village of Troon. All the homes are for social rent and built with energy efficiency in mind with PV solar panels and electric car charger ports. All the homes have air source heat pumps and achieve an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) A which helps reduce our customers’ energy bills. All the homes will be fully occupied before the end of July.
In Somerset, 19 affordable homes have been completed at a development called the Paddocks in Bishops Lydeard. The scheme includes eight homes for supported housing, with all of the homes being affordable rent. The eight supported housing properties are purpose-built level access bungalows for customers with learning disabilities.
With sustainability a key priority for the development, house martin nests, bee bricks and hedgehog holes in the fences have all been installed as well as meadow grasses, trees and hedgerows.
