Work is set to get underway on eight new homes for social rent under the ownership of Bath & North East Somerset Council.
Photo © Bath & North East Somerset Council
The Argyle Works site on the Lower Bristol Road, which was formerly a Highways Maintenance Depot, will be developed to provide affordable, energy-efficient apartments to help meet the demand for low-cost homes.
The properties will be delivered in partnership with Aequus Construction Limited (ACL), the council’s wholly-owned development company, and will include three one-bedroom apartments and five two-bedroom duplexes.
The development is the next step in the council’s own affordable housing scheme, which directly delivers council housing by developing existing council properties and surplus land.
The initial £12 million B&NES Homes programme will provide 58 general needs council houses for rent.
The Argyle Works planning application was approved in September last year and completion is due in summer 2025.
Councillor Matt McCabe, cabinet member for Built Environment and Sustainable Development, said: “Our first social rent properties in 30 years were completed earlier this year at Newbridge Road and I am pleased to see work starting on the Argyle Works site, the next step in our plans to provide affordable homes. Our ambition is to build a pipeline to deliver hundreds of homes a year.”
The apartments will be available through Homesearch, the council’s housing allocation scheme for social rent homes and low-cost home ownership in B&NES.
Three of the units will be set aside for young people.
ACL is also working to develop plans for a social rented scheme on council-owned land at Danes Lane in Keynsham.
