New Council Houses Completed

The first phase of a construction project to build new council homes across the city is now well underway, and the first of the new homes have now been completed.

What: Council House new build programme

When: Wednesday 16 December, 11.15am.

Who: Mayor George Ferguson and Assistant Mayor for Neighbourhoods Councillor Daniella Radice.

Where: Mill House, Seymour Road, BS5 0NF

These first houses at Mill House, Easton and Crabtree Walk, Eastville, have been built to help address the shortage of large family homes available in the city.

Many of the sites being built on make good use of disused housing land including ex-garage sites that have become uneconomical to rent or fallen into disrepair.

The current programme will deliver around 100 new homes over the next two years to add to the council’s housing stock.

George Ferguson, Mayor of Bristol, has declared that providing more affordable homes is one of his top priorities.

He said:  “I have been determined to deliver more affordable homes since I came into office, which has not been made any easier by the new Government’s actions on rent and right to buy, but I am pleased that we are now working to increase the numbers of new council homes in the city.

“It is also right that as European Green Capital, we shall build to high environmental standards.

“Whilst I am delighted to see the first of these new properties available for occupation, we are under increasing financial pressures due to recent changes in national legislation, but I shall be pulling out all the stops to do what we can to ensure everyone in the city has a place to call home.”

The first phase of homes will provide much needed accommodation for larger families. Later phases are likely to focus on smaller homes but in each case the houses provided will be based on the need in that part of Bristol.

Councillor Daniella Radice, Assistant Mayor for Neighbourhoods, said: “I am really pleased to see the first of our new council houses now ready for tenants to move in.

“It is vitally important that all new homes in the city are built to meet high environmental criteria and best meet the needs of the people of Bristol.

In the first phase of the project the homes are being built to traditional methods, with all being designed with adaptability in mind to suit future needs of the tenants.

The properties are also low carbon, and built to high environmental quality standards, meeting level four of the Code for Sustainable Homes.

Phase two developments will see the council building homes to ‘Passivhaus‘ standards. This will result in extremely energy efficient properties which will see household utility bills dramatically reduced.

Later phases will look at the modular offsite construction methods to deliver the new homes required.

To keep up to date with the developments visit www.bristol.gov.uk/newcouncilhomes