Housing boost as council builds 500th new home in five years

HOW IT WILL LOOK: An artist’s impression of the new bungalows being developed by Hull City Council

Hull City Council has reached a major milestone in its multi-million-pound council house regeneration programme – building its 500th new home in just five years.

The 500th home is being built as part of a development of the small sites housing programme, with work under way on ten different sites across the city. It is the latest stage of a strategy to create almost 1,000 council homes in the city by 2025.

The authority has now completed a total of 472 new-build council homes across the city since 2015, and plans to create a further 469 homes by 2025. Work has started on the 500th home and it will be completed in the summer.

The bungalow on Waveney Road in East Hull will be going to Frances Pearson, 81, who has lived in a council home in the city for more than 60 years.

She said: “I’m currently in a three-bedroom house and need to downsize. I have all of my family and friends around here and it’s fantastic to be able to move into a new bungalow.

“It’s going to make my life so much better and the bungalow is lovely – not having to go up and down stairs will make a big difference to me.

“It’s within walking distance of where I live now and one of my granddaughters will live in the same street. I’m so happy that I can still live in the area and will have a home that suits me and my family – I’ve got loads of grandchildren and they can still come and stay with me.

“I’m so happy, it’s fantastic and I can’t wait to move in.”

As part of the drive to deliver more new council homes, the first phase of the council’s Small Sites Housing Programme will deliver 39 two-bedroom bungalows over ten different sites across the city.

Planning approval was granted in 2020 and the four contractors have all now started work on site.

The first of these new bungalows will be completed in the spring. Tenants are already lined up to move in following the adoption of the council’s new Local Lettings Policy, which is applied to all new builds across the city.

Councillor John Black, the council’s portfolio holder for housing, said: “Since 2015, we have successfully been developing new council homes across the city to provide our tenants with high quality, well insulated modern new homes to live in.

“To have built 500 new council homes since 2015 is a great achievement and is evidence of our continuing commitment to transform housing in the city, providing more choice of high quality modern new homes for our tenants.

“We are dedicated to continuing that ambitious investment and development programme and are well on target to deliver almost 1,000 council homes by 2025.”

The second phase of the small sites programme will be rolled out later this year. A planning application was also submitted in December 2020 for the delivery of modern, new council homes on the former Dane Park school site in Orchard Park.