Platform Housing Group, the largest landlord in the Midlands, is celebrating a shortlisting at the upcoming Midlands Residential Property Awards for its scheme in the Peak District National Park.
The site at Colonel Wright Close in Bakewell was finished last summer after some 10 years of hard work by the group and its partners in the planning and local authorities.
One of a very small number of affordable schemes in the area, the development of 30 homes was completed using stone from the local quarry to sit in keeping with the beautiful natural area.
Platform are one of Homes England’s strategic partners and the project is viewed as a great example of what can be achieved by the housing sector.
“Well done to Platform and its partners for delivering a truly fantastic scheme. It’s a visually stunning scheme delivering high quality housing in an area of outstanding beauty and with high demand for affordable housing. This is a great result for the local community,” said Tom Hawley, Head of Affordable Housing at Homes England.
Local residents have been delighted with the results, enabling them to afford to stay in the town where they grew up, which saw one of the highest rises in house prices in the UK during the last two years.
“We’ve got specific purposes to conserve the area, but we also have a duty to look after our communities. With Colonel Wright Close, we’ve formed some really strong partnerships and even though we have different agendas, in terms of the constraints we’ve got, this is a fantastic achievement,” added Brian Taylor, head of planning at the Peak District National Park Authority.
The developer for the scheme was Lindum Group. A spokesperson said: “The scheme took more than a decade to come to fruition and the nomination is recognition of the hard work and dedication by our client, Platform Housing. A lot of care and attention was put into ensuring the homes were built to maintain the look of the area and our construction team worked with local planners to agree material selections. This involved producing sample panels of stonework and render to prove the quality of the products. We also liaised with the local quarry to ensure stone supplies would be readily available. The final result is a development of much-needed homes in a beautiful part of the country and it would be fantastic if the scheme was crowned winner on the night. “
“This just shows how a small site can have a huge impact on the area and the community. To have such a beautiful scheme that provides much needed affordable housing in the town makes us very proud. I’d like to thank all the partners that worked so hard over a long period of time to help achieve this,” concluded Group Chief Executive at Platform Elizabeth Froude.
The awards take place on June 23rd at the Eastside Rooms in Birmingham where Platform has also been shortlisted for the Social Housing Award.
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