Planning permission has been granted for the first Redrow homes within a pioneering new housing partnership designed to boost the size and quality of Liverpool’s housing stock.
The 21 homes on the site of the former Watergate School, in Speke Road, Woolton, have been given the green light and should be on sale by spring next year.
To be known as Knights Park, the development is designed to kick start the new-build element of the Liverpool Housing Partnership, a pioneering relationship forged between Liverpool City Council, Redrow Homes and Liverpool Mutual Homes to deliver 1,500 new homes and bring a further 1,000 back into use across the city.
Redrow sales director Claire Jarvis said: “This is the first of the partnership’s new developments to come to fruition for Redrow and it’s a fantastic one to start with. Knights Park has an enviable location, in a lovely part of Liverpool with lots of green spaces but also with great access into the city. Part of the site lies in the Woolton Village Conservation Area and we will be preserving the existing sandstone wall to create a feature at the entrance to the development.
“One of the key aims of the partnership is to bring forward more high quality family homes of this calibre, so that people can stay in the city they know and love rather than move out to surrounding towns and villages. Homes will have many of the features today’s families look for, including convivial open plan living spaces, en-suite to master bedroom, ground floor cloakroom and a garage or off-street parking.”
Mayor Joe Anderson added: “The partnership is about delivering on my pledge to build 5,000 new homes, but we are also focusing on improving and extending the type of homes we have all over Liverpool. We are making the city a more attractive place to live and more sustainable – both by generating more council tax which we can use to support vital services and using brownfield sites which have previously been developed.”
The Knights Park homes will comprise a variety of three and four-bedroom semi-detached and detached styles from Redrow’s Heritage Collection, which marries traditional, Arts and Crafts inspired exteriors with contemporary interiors. They will feature a mix of brick and render elevations.
As part of the planning agreement, Redrow will make a financial contribution to improving nearby public open spaces and will plant many new trees and shrubs at Knights Park to supplement existing greenery.
The former school was decommissioned in 2005 and permission has already been granted to demolish the existing buildings.
Redrow, Liverpool Mutual Homes and the City Council are working together under the umbrella of the Liverpool Housing Partnership to bring widespread improvements and new housing opportunities across the city.
Redrow will provide a range of private sale executive homes and will identify and acquire land to enhance the Council’s own development sites; LMH will develop affordable housing by investing their own funding and by attracting grant funding and also seek to bring 1,000 empty properties back into use; the City Council will provide strategic planning and housing need information. Land and investment will be brought together in a planned way, with any capital receipts generated by the sale of council sites and assets reinvested back into the partnership.
Sales for the Knights Park homes are expected to begin spring 2016 and those interested will be able to register their information on the Redrow website at https://www.redrow.co.uk prior to the launch and receive regular updates about the development’s progress.
