Living Space Housing to restart construction work at the former Victoria Carpets Sports Ground in Kidderminster
Construction work will restart at the Queen’s carpet maker – Victoria Carpets’ – former sports ground in Kidderminster. The £8million affordable housing scheme was close to reaching the topping out stage for the first tranche of new homes before all work was paused due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
All 48 new homes at the 5.4-acre site are being developed for affordable housing provider Stonewater, with Solihull-based Living Space Housing having sourced the land, secured planning and constructing the scheme.
With all employees and contractors able to adhere to social distancing and safe working practices while the UK continues to be in lockdown, the company is confident it can progress with construction.
Living Space is a development-led residential planning, design and construction services solution for Registered Providers, PRS Funds, the NHS, Universities and Defence Estates. Having launched to the market last year, the company already has a total of 357 residential plots under control across the Midlands, representing a combined construction value in excess of £41million.
Steve Davies, Managing Director of Living Space Housing said: “Construction work had been moving on at pace here prior to all work being paused when the Prime Minister announced the UK was on lockdown. Our team has worked extremely hard over the past month to understand the impact of Covid-19 across our whole supply chain and to ensure all guidance regarding social distancing and hygiene can be adhered to. We are delighted that with Stonewater’s blessing, we can now recommence work and deliver these 48 much-needed affordable homes to the Kidderminster housing market.
“This expansive scheme has driven us to set up the extensive supply chain we now have in place across Living Space’s development portfolio. We are very grateful for the support from our sub-contractors, consultants and the team at Stonewater at this unprecedented time.”
Matt Crucefix, Director of Development (West) at Stonewater, said: “We’re pleased that we’re able to continue work at Victoria Carpets. Our number one priority has always been, and will always be, the health and wellbeing of our customers and colleagues. We have endeavoured to, where safe and within government guidelines, to continue with developing the much-needed and affordable homes that will help to reduce the housing crisis in high demand areas like Kidderminster.”
The previously derelict site is located off Spennells Valley Road and neighbours Kidderminster Golf Course. Once completed, 60 per cent of the homes will be available for affordable rent, with the remainder available to buy through Stonewater’s shared ownership scheme.
The developable area is enclosed by mature trees and the new homes are being constructed using two complementary types of red brick, as well as render. The properties will be surrounded by public open space and a newly created ecological area.
Providing an end-to-end service to Registered Providers (RPs) enables them to deliver more homes with greater efficiency. Living Space takes care of land, planning, design, build and development. It can also assist RPs by delivering open market homes in order to help with a scheme’s viability. This enables Living Space’s clients to be able to focus on the funding and management of high-quality homes for their residents.
Living Space’s other two live development sites comprise 51 homes at Pixiefields in Cradley, on the outskirts of Malvern, Herefordshire, which is also in conjunction with Stonewater, and 26 homes located off Britannia Way in central Telford, Shropshire for Accord Housing.
For more information on Living Space Housing, click here.