A £28m deal has been agreed between local housing association Curo and national housebuilder Bellway to bring 171 new affordable homes to Somerset, Bristol and Wiltshire.
Housing association and housebuilder Curo and housebuilder Bellway have joined forces to deliver the homes over the next few years as part of a S106 package deal.
The deal is the first of its kind for both Curo and Bellway South West. It means Curo will be the sole provider of affordable homes across six future Bellway developments.
Curo Chief Executive Victor da Cunha said: “The homes will be a mix of social and affordable rent as well as shared ownership. Importantly, they will enable us to help even more local people in our region to move into a modern, energy-efficient home they can afford.
“We’re delighted to enter this partnership with Bellway. While we are a developer in our own right, collaboration with others is also critically important because it enables us to increase the numbers of homes we let each year and therefore helps address the huge housing need we have across the South West.
“We hope that this will be the first of many other similar ventures.”
The package deal satisfies Bellway’s section 106 planning obligations to provide affordable homes on its developments.
Developers usually work with different housing associations across their schemes and there can be more than one social housing provider on one site.
Housing associations acquire these homes to let them on social and affordable rents to local people who can’t afford the market value.
The new homes will cost Curo £28million and will be 100% funded from the organisation’s own resources.
Bellway will also build 326 homes for private sale on the developments in Wickwar, Corsham, Bradford on Avon, Hanham, Melksham and Banwell.
Paul Minnis, Managing Director for Bellway South West, said: “Working with one affordable housing partner across six of our new developments will bring benefits to Bellway, Curo and residents of the private and affordable homes we are building.
“Together we will work in a more effective and cost-efficient way to make these homes available to local people more quickly.
“The deal comes at a significant point in Bellway’s expansion across the South West. The partnership demonstrates the crucial role of new homes developments in providing affordable housing to meet local needs.
“Our new developments will also generate investment in infrastructure such as education, healthcare and transport as part of our additional section 106 obligations.”
This is not the first time the two organisations have teamed up to deliver new homes. Bellway also work alongside Curo’s own house-building team at the award-winning Mulberry Park development in Bath, where each is building private and affordable homes.