Helston House, from plan to reality

Helston House, Scarborough Avenue delivers just that, providing 29, one, two and three-bedroom apartments for the town.

Whilst construction started back in 2019, significant challenges brought about by the global pandemic and industry supply chain disruptions have meant progress has been hampered. Despite this, the council’s appointed contractors have been working hard to reach the final handover of the 29 apartments this week.

A community open day was held recently which provided a great opportunity to show councillors and local residents this sustainable new build, as well as take them on a tour of the development. Everyone had an opportunity to ask questions and find out more about the sustainable aspects, including air source heat pumps, added thermal fabric insulation, triple glazing, LED lighting throughout and solar panels to name but a few.

A special thank-you goes to the teachers and children from Woolenwick Primary School who have been busy with their artistic skills again. Initially they designed the hoarding which was erected around the site when construction first commenced – and when they visited earlier this year to see the building and meet the builders, they designed drawings welcoming the new tenants to their homes that will brighten up the corridors.

Helston House is a sustainable pilot scheme that is leading the way in helping us to define the quality of our wider housing development programme and improve the properties being let to our council tenants – the sustainable design of the building, not only reduces the adverse environmental impact of construction that is unavoidable, but also helps to lower the utility bills for our residents too.

Councillor Jeannette Thomas, Deputy Leader of the Council and Executive Member for Housing and Housing Development said: “We’re building back better and greener and this development is a fantastic example of 29 one, two and three-bedroom apartments all allocated for council rent.

“It has been designed and built with the ambition of helping to reduce the ongoing carbon footprint, using sustainable construction materials and featuring a wide range of low impact, environmentally friendly state-of-the-art technology.”

Helston House benefits from:

• Zero gas
• Onsite Green Energy Generation through Photo Voltaic Panels Enhanced building fabric insulation
• Triple glazing throughout the scheme
• Grey water heat recovery
• LED lighting throughout

Kenilworth Close Handover

This week councillors also viewed the first stage of Kenilworth Close. This mixed tenure scheme includes a total of 236 homes, with 118 being allocated for council rent.

This initial stage includes the completion of 33 apartments for private sale, as well as 24 allocated for council rent that are due to be completed shortly.

Councillors took the time to visit the scheme and have a look round the high-quality private homes and the council rent apartments which will be ready to let to council tenants soon.

5-Star Quality Approach

All of our new housing developments are designed to adhere to our 5-Star quality approach, which is helping us to define the quality of our wider programme. This helps us to ensure developments are sustainable, affordable for new tenants and make best use of the assets we have available. The 5-Star approach principles are:

• Sustainable Development
• Genuinely Affordable Rents
• Tenure Blind Design
• Makes Best Use of Land
• Community Led Consultation

Find out more about all our current developments on our Schemes on Site webpage.