Nuplace to raise cash to help protect frontline services
Telford & Wrekin Council will this weekend launch* a new external company to build and manage more than 400 homes for the private rental market.
This is with the aim of supporting social and economic regeneration, bridging a gap in the rental market and creating revenue to protect frontline council services.
Nuplace Ltd will support the delivery of the council’s long term capital investment programme by developing stalled and brownfield sites.
The positive outcomes of this include social and economic regeneration, as well as an ongoing revenue stream for the council that can be reinvested into providing much needed council services.
Work will start straight away on Monday with Nuplace’s contractor Lovell Partnerships Ltd beginning work on more than 130 quality two to four bedroom homes in Madeley and Randlay.
All the 404 homes that are planned to be built on a number of council-owned sites will then be rented out as a way of encouraging major investment to meet the borough’s housing demand.
Nuplace will build and manage quality well-designed homes as well as providing a responsible landlord service to its tenants.
Nuplace is a wholly owned company of the council limited by shares and established to develop and manage a combination of market rental properties together with a small number of affordable rental housing.
Telford & Wrekin Council has identified a number of sites on which Nuplace will plan to build a combination of two, three and four bedroomed homes.
These will be constructed in three separate building phases, with Woodland Walk in Madeley (101 homes) and Pool View in Randlay (31 homes) being the first phase.
Councillor Richard Overton, cabinet member for Housing, said: "The Housing Investment Programme is a council initiative aimed at helping meet the major demand for quality market and affordable rental properties.
"Renting a property is increasingly the right solution for more and more people and Nuplace will make the experience of setting up home as simple and as straight forward as possible."
Councillor Shaun Davies, joint cabinet lead for the Housing Investment Programme, said: "This programme will also provide the council with an income stream that will contribute to funding frontline services and reducing the need to make further cuts.
"I am delighted that it means we are able to bring forward a number of brownfield sites for development, making the best use of previously redundant council land."
Woodland Walk in Madeley is where the former Woodlands Primary School site and Pool View, Randlay, is on the site of a former lorry park at the junction of Stirchley Avenue and Randlay Avenue.
Phase two of the programme is subject to planning approval and is expected to include a number of homes at Matlock Avenue, Malinslee; Madeley Court, Madeley, Wildwood, Woodside and a small number of affordable rental properties in Springfields, Newport.
Phase three which is at early design stage will involve looking at the feasibility of providing a number of one and two bedroom apartments in Southwater.
Public engagement and consultation on this phase will take place as options are progressed.
Prospective tenants can find out more by visiting the Nuplace website and anyone who is interested in Nuplace homes can register to receive future email updates.
It is likely that full details of phase one site plots and prices will be released in September with properties ready to move into from February 2016.
*The launch will take place via the big screen at the Boyzone concert in the QEII Fields In Trust Telford Town Park Arena.
