New Council Houses Ready for Families
NEW four-bedroom houses in Reading Borough Council’s largest new residential development have been handed over by developers Hill.
The affordable homes at Conwy Close, in Tilehurst, are now in the Council’s possession and will soon be available to families on the housing register to rent. The houses are part of a 57-home Council development which also includes 12-one bed flats, 22 two-bed flats, 9 two-bed houses and 6 three-bed houses which will all be let at social housing rents. Construction work started in October 2017 after Hill were contracted to undertake the £11m scheme. A block of 2 one-bed flats and 3 two-bed flats was completed in November 2018 and the whole scheme is expected to be finished by summer this year. The first tenants moved in before December and all the flats are now let. The first four of eight four-bedroom houses were handed over to the Council this month. They are semi-detached homes on three floors with an internal garage. There is a kitchen-dining room, utility space and shower on the ground floor, a lounge, shower room and a bedroom on the first floor and a family bathroom and three further bedrooms on the second floor. All homes feature traditional Reading red-brick exteriors and will have attractive landscaped frontages and communal areas, including newly planted trees, open spaces and informal play areas.Councillor John Ennis, Reading’s Lead Councillor for Housing, said:
“There is a real shortage of affordable family homes in Reading so it gives me great pleasure to see the Council take possession of these wonderful new four-bedroom houses. “I am really pleased to see some of the flats in Conwy Close occupied already and I cannot wait for families to move into these modern new houses. “I am delighted to see this new Council housing development progressing so well and am looking forward to the scheme being completed this summer, and to other schemes starting on site later this year.”Ryan Harris, Regional Director at Hill, said:
“We were delighted to join Reading Council in celebrating the handover of the new houses at Conwy Close and we look forward to welcoming the new residents in to their new homes. “The scheme is due to be completed in the summer and we are pleased that the development is helping to play a role in providing local families with high-quality affordable homes”.NOTES TO EDITORS
Reading Borough Council and Hill are working in partnership to offer Council apprentices opportunities to gain valuable experience on site throughout the project. Hill is also providing funding to offer opportunities to local people through Employment Skills Training. Conwy Close is one of a number of initiatives the Council has in place to tackle the town’s housing crisis. Twenty-eight temporary homes came into use in January 2018 for households who would otherwise be placed in bed and breakfast accommodation; the Council is working closely with the private sector to prevent families being made homeless and to help secure private rented homes for households and the Council’s wholly-owned company Homes for Reading aims to let accommodation at below-market rents in the long term. The Council has also agreed to invest almost £20m in the construction of up to 100 new affordable homes in its next house building programme.About Hill:
Hill is an award-winning housebuilder and one of the leading developers in London and the south east of England, delivering both private for sale and affordable homes. Family owned and operated, it has grown to establish itself as the UK’s third largest privately owned housebuilder, building in excess of 2,000 homes a year, including more than 1,000 homes for clients and partners in the affordable housing sector, and boasts a pipeline of more than 3,300 homes. Hill’s portfolio is diverse, ranging from landmark mixed-use regeneration schemes and large-scale urban extensions, to bespoke housing in rural communities. Hill has won a string of awards and achievements, including the Large Housebuilder of the Year award at the Housebuilder Awards 2018 and Gold for Medium Housebuilder at the WhatHouse? Awards 2018. It also received the coveted 5* status in the Home Builders Federation’s annual Customer Satisfaction Survey, WhatHouse? Development of the Year title three years in a row (2014 – 2016) as well as their Housebuilder of the Year award in 2015. For further information on Hill visit: http://www.hill.co.uk