Programme Costs
Total scheme costs: £5,420,720
Value of Affordable Homes Programme support for scheme: £680,000 from Homes England and £825,000 from Onward’s Recycled Capital Grant Fund
These homes are traditional build.
Scheme size – 44 units | Affordable Rent – 34 units | Shared Ownership – 10 units
Partners involved
- Homes England
- Casey Group
-
Tameside MBC
These homes were part of the 2016-2021 Affordable homes Programme
Outcomes
The site has been a tremendous success. In terms of the Shared Ownership units, these were all reserved off-plan before the showhome was handed over. None of the purchasers have completed their sale yet as the first properties were only signed off as build complete on the 30th July 2019. However, feedback from buyers has been positive on the design and layout of the properties.
28 of the affordable rent properties are already occupied with the site due to be fully occupied by the end of August.
9 of the 10 Shared Ownership purchasers are already residing in the area so the objective of helping local people onto the housing ladder has proved to be a success.
What this has also highlighted is the partnership working between Onward Homes, Casey Group, Homes England and the Local Authority.
Lessons learnt
What is clear with the success of the Shared Ownership properties is that there was a clear Marketing strategy in place to target families and first time buyers in offering them a credible product which would also provide them with an opportunity to move to full ownership in the future.
Communication between the Onward Living Sales team and purchasers was important in terms of offering them clear and transparent information about the houses, and providing processes that were easy to follow. Given these were all off-plan purchases, it was necessary to have those processes in place at point of sale.
“Working together with our partners, we have been able to bring these high quality homes to the area for local people. This is another example of Onward’s commitment to developing much-needed housing in the communities where we work and we will continue to seek out further development opportunities in the future.”
Stephen Heverin (Growth and Regeneration Director)
“It’s superb to see a high quality development like this and I’m particularly happy at the mix of shared ownership and affordable rent. The fact that they are already 100% taken up shows the demand for high quality housing and the different ways for people to acquire it. We’ve got a lot of schemes now providing exactly the kind of housing products that we need. But the demand is so high for decent family homes that we need to do more of it. Certainly more developments like this would be very welcome.”
Jonathan Reynolds, local MP for Stalybridge and Hyde
“We’re so excited, we can’t wait to move in. The house is absolutely ideal for what we need – it’s local, there’s plenty of room for the kids, and it’s a brand new home.”
Katie Wilde & Martin Mellor – Shared Ownership purchaser
Future plans
There is a clear need and demand for affordable housing in the Tameside which was reflected in the number of enquiries we received about the scheme that converted into a reservation (176 since the 1st April). We will look to explore further opportunities in this borough.
