Morgan Sindall is set to begin on an extra care housing scheme that will make a hugely positive difference to life in a Leeds community.
Leeds City Council’s Middlecross development in Armley will be home to 65 high-quality, energy efficient and affordable apartments providing independent living opportunities for older people. The three-storey complex – to be built on brownfield land between Armley Grove Place and Simpson Grove – will also have care facilities and communal spaces, including a 50-seat dining area.
It is anticipated that construction will get under way in March this year, with completion scheduled for early 2027.
Procured via the SCAPE Construction framework, the scheme – which is being delivered via Leeds’s Council Housing Growth Programme (CHGP) – will regenerate a two-acre site that has been unused following the demolition of Middlecross Day Centre in 2018. Its transformation will also support Leeds’s net zero ambitions, with the apartments being built to energy efficient specifications and benefiting from high levels of insulation and the use of ground source heat pump technology.
The new homes will be available for affordable rent, underlining the council’s commitment to improving the health and wellbeing of all local residents while tackling issues such as fuel poverty.
The bulk of the funding for the development is being provided by the council’s housing service via Right to Buy receipts and borrowing, with £1.3m of grant support due to come from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Brownfield Housing Fund.
The scheme will benefit the wider community by creating employment, skills and apprenticeship opportunities.
More than 350 new homes have been built via the council’s CHGP since 2018. More than 340 homes have also been acquired as part of the programme, with these properties and the new-builds both playing a crucial role in efforts to ease local affordable housing pressures.
