In the past year the Building a Better Nottingham programme has seen a number of new homes completed across the city, as more than a hundred are on their way up.
Since October 2013 Nottingham City Council (NCC) and Nottingham City Homes (NCH) have built brand new homes at sites in Sneinton, Bestwood Park, and Clifton, as work has begun on a further 106 in Lenton and Radford. Running in tandem with the new-build project is the demolition of older unfit buildings, with three sixteen-storey tower blocks being razed to the ground since this time last year. With just two left to go, the city’s skyline is seeing dramatic change.
The latest project to get underway in the city is in Broxtowe, where two former council homes (more recently the site of a community resource, which has been relocated) have been demolished and Notts construction company, Woodhead, has started the building work on four new bungalows.
Woodhead will be using apprentices and tradespeople from social enterprise scheme, BEST (Broxtowe Education, Skills and Training) across the road. Site managers and experienced trades-people from Woodhead will be on hand to guide the trainees, providing them with valuable site ex-perience, as well as sharing their skills and knowledge.
The trainees are not the first to benefit from the overall Building a Better Nottingham housing pro-gramme. Since it started in early 2013, more than ** local people have worked on the programme, with ** apprentices getting the opportunity to work on a new build site.
It is estimated that so far, for every £1 spent on the £55m scheme, £1.75 is reinvested back into the community, through the use of local labour, training opportunities and investment in the local supply chain - with some phases completed by Woodhead achieving up to100% of labour, plant and materials being sourced within 20 miles of the sites.
Cllr David Liversidge, portfolio holder for housing and community safety at Nottingham City Coun-cil, said: “I have watched as this scheme has progressed so dramatically over the past 18 months, with not just vast changes to the landscape and skyline across all parts of the city, but with the transformation of communities.
“Carrying out a programme of works to enhance the look and feel of our communities, and provide sustainable energy efficient homes for generations to come, wasn’t enough for Nottingham. We wanted to make sure that whatever we did had a positive social impact on the surrounding areas. There’s no better way to do that than providing local people with jobs and training opportunities, as well as supporting local businesses.”
The four bungalows being built by Woodhead on Denton Green will provide much-needed energy efficient homes for older or vulnerable people, who need single storey living.
Nick Murphy, Chief Executive of Nottingham City Homes, said: “The Denton Green site is one of our smaller developments, with just four new homes in comparison to the sites of more than fifty just down the road in Lenton and Radford.
“But however small in stature, the site has real significance as it reflects all the core objectives of the Building a Better Nottingham scheme. Through the demolition of two older properties, we are able to rebuild four brand new energy efficient homes, meeting the needs of our tenants and creat-ing jobs and training opportunities in the process. This is what our programme of work is about and that is why it has had such an impact already across the city.”
Work on site in Broxtowe is expected to be complete by Spring 2015.
Mark Maisey, the Delivery Team Leader at Woodhead, said: “We are delighted to be working with Nottingham City Homes again following our completion of the first phase of the programme in March this year.
“What really makes this project special is the fact that we are working with local social enterprise BEST Build on this project. On all our sites we aim to involve the community as much as we can through our B.I.G. Initiative (Building to Inspire a Generation) often working alongside schools and community groups, as well as inviting construction apprentices to find out more about careers in the industry.”
“We are really looking forward to sharing our skills and knowledge to give BEST’s team the right level of site experience to propel them onto a fantastic future in the construction industry.”
For more information on Building a Better Nottingham, please visit the website: www.buildingnottingham.co.uk