A start to mend Britain’s “broken” housing market has been made in Essex.
Artists’ impressions show how an empty council building will be turned into homes in a £42million project to help tackle the county’s housing shortage.
Essex County Council has planning permission to turn the former library headquarters and storage warehouse in Goldlay Gardens, Chelmsford, into 32 one and two-bedroom flats.
The council says the development shows Essex is ahead of the curve after the launch of the Government’s new housing strategy. This described the current housing market as “broken” and has changed the rules around development to pressure councils and developers to build more new homes.
In Essex County Council’s boundaries, 136,000 new homes are needed over the next 20 years, 6,800 per year. When the unitary authorities of Southend and Thurrock are included, that figure rises to 180,000 homes. In 2015/16 in the Essex County Council area, 5,000 new homes were built.
The new homes in Goldlay Gardens include nine affordable units, and will be built in three blocks, with balconies or terraces, roof-mounted solar panels and car parking around a central courtyard garden.
It is the first site to be developed by Essex Housing, the authority’s in-house team that works with public sector partners county-wide to identify surplus land for development and make the most of taxpayer-owned assets.
John Spence, Essex County Council cabinet member for housing, said: “Goldlay Gardens represents a real milestone in our project to find idle pockets of public sector land and use them to help tackle the housing shortage.
“This is the first of many sites the Essex Housing team is bringing forward and will provide high quality apartments on surplus brownfield land in the heart of Chelmsford’s city centre.
“Land owned by the public sector is ultimately owned by the taxpayer, therefore it is incredibly important that we, as custodians, are making the most of these assets.”
Rose Builders Ltd has been chosen to develop the site.
Essex County Council has agreed a £42m capital budget over the next five years for Essex Housing to identify unwanted buildings and land to build housing.
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