19 January 2011
Residents will get the key to their new front doors on January 21st as Eastbourne Borough Council officially hands over the first four newly built Council properties in more than 20 years.
The council has worked in partnership with Westridge Construction and Amicus Horizon to develop these new flats, together with the Homes and Communities Agency which provided the necessary grant funding. The site at Langney Rise has been in need of redevelopment for some time, since the original building was no longer used and had been empty for several years.
One of the flats has been specially designed to be accessible for a wheelchair user and all the new homes have been built to a high specification, with solar powered water heating systems to keep running costs to a minimum.
Councillor Margaret Bannister, the council’s portfolio holder for Housing and Community Development said “I am delighted that this site has been regenerated from a dilapidated empty building into four modern new affordable homes for local people. It is especially exciting to welcome the building of the first new Council homes for a generation in Eastbourne. Meeting the housing needs of our community is a high priority for the council and these new flats will offer comfortable and affordable new homes for local people”.
Gordon Sims, Chair of Eastbourne Homes added “I very much welcome the addition of such high quality new flats to the stock of homes we manage for local residents, and I look forward to more new council homes being built in the future.”
Kevin Bourner, Head of Area at the HCA, said: “I’m proud that the HCA has been able to support the local authority and partners in creating the first new council-built and managed homes for the Eastbourne community for two decades.”
The Council are nearing completion of 26 additional Council flats and houses and are working in partnership with local housing associations to build a further 80 new affordable homes which will be completed over the next 12 months. All these new homes will be let to households on the council’s housing register.
