Nottingham families are moving in this week to the new homes in Sneinton built by Nottingham City Homes‘ very own workforce. Pictured above the homes nearing completion.
The eight new family homes have been built, project managed and completed by dozens of NCH tradespeople including apprentices, representatives from the Women in Construction team and team members who have been maintaining homes across the city for decades.
The homes are built on a former garage site which was disused and had begun to attract anti- social behaviour and vandalism. Each home has been built using a ‘fabric first’ approach, ensuring the buildings are as energy-efficient as possible. They are built to Lifetime Homes standards and fitted with solar panels on their roofs, designed to keep fuel bills as low as possible.
New resident, Samantha Morrison is moving into one of the new homes with her 11 month old daughter this week. The 29 year old life-long Sneinton Dale resident is delighted, Samantha said: “It’s like winning the lottery really. We’re moving from a one bedroom flat just around the corner into one of these amazing new homes — I’m so pleased.
“My daughter was born 13 weeks premature and has extra needs, so having this really warm new home with lots of space makes a huge difference to me. The doctors say they’re not sure whether she may have a disability when she’s older, so knowing these houses are built to Lifetime Homes standards, so they can be changed to suit our needs in the future, means we can really stay here for a long time.”
Nick Murphy, chief executive of Nottingham City Homes added: “It’s been fantastic to have the opportunity to build new homes again, alongside the people who’ve been maintaining and repairing Nottingham’s council houses for many years. We’re building our own capacity to build the homes Nottingham people need.
“We’ve had apprentices with us along the way, one of whom has served a huge amount of his apprenticeship on the site, has completed his qualifications and is now working for us as a qualified joiner.”
The site team has also worked with the NCH Women in Construction initiative, offering work placements to those women training with the company through the scheme.
Councillor Alex Ball, executive assistant with responsibility for housing at Nottingham City Council, said: “I’m delighted to see what a difference these fantastic homes are making to the new residents already. They’re not only providing new homes for Nottingham people, they’re also helping to transform the local community, removing an area which attracted anti-social behaviour and replacing it with sustainable family homes for the future of social housing in the city.”
The properties have been funded by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), which is committed to increasing housing supply across the country to help more people have a home of their own.
