The demolition is part of plans to breathe life back into 200 empty homes in Accrington, and is an innovative joint venture between specialist empty homes developer PlaceFirst and housing association Twin Valley Homes. Working with Hyndburn Borough Council, the joint venture will deliver the refurbishment and remodelling of boarded-up houses in the Woodnook neighbourhood, close to the centre of Accrington.
The project will see 200 of these traditional “two-up, two-down” terraced, currently empty properties transformed into modern, attractive and energy efficient homes, offering a range of two, three and four bedroom properties to meet the needs of growing and established families.
The first phase of the development will see 71 houses being brought back into use by the summer of 2014, with a further 129 properties set to follow.
The homes will be let via an institutional private rental model that seeks to deliver much needed quality properties and property management services for people that rent houses privately.
PlaceFirst and Twin Valley Homes will offer customers a Fair Value rental package, which means that the homes will be priced to compete with existing, often poor standard private rented property in the area.
The Joint Venture will also promote long term tenure security, providing customers with the security of knowing that their home will be available to rent long term, and that rent will only increase through an index-linked annual review.
PlaceFirst and Twin Valley Homes will invest more than £6.5m in the first phase of the project. For the second phase, Hyndburn Borough Council has secured £3.76m of Empty Homes Cluster Funding, again from the Homes and Communities Agency, and is working with PlaceFirst to develop a neighbourhood investment plan to enhance public realm and provide opportunities for low cost home ownership as well as private renting.
The project will help rejuvenate the local community and will be integral to Accrington’s revival as a thriving Lancashire market town.
Councillor Pritchard said; “Woodnook is the Council’s top regeneration priority and so it’s great to see work progressing here. We are delighted to be working with PlaceFirst and Twin Valley Homes to bring 200 empty homes back into use.
“They are using an innovative funding model that will lever in a minimum £10.3 million private investment to convert and refurbish poor quality housing into high quality, energy efficient homes fit for modern living.
“This will raise the bar for private renting in the Borough and set the standard for other landlords to follow”.
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