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North West consortium marks 10,000 homes after £1bn investment
Social housebuilding consortium JV North has marked the delivery of 10,000 homes with the redevelopment of a fire station in Liverpool.
The Station Mews scheme was delivered by Liverpool-based consortium member Torus, and saw JV North pass the £1bn investment mark in partnership with Homes England.
Made up of North West-based housing associations and local authorities, the group’s development work has now seen 30,000 people receive new homes.
John Bowker, chair of JV North and executive director of operations at Stockport Homes, said: “The cost of living crisis and a growing ageing population means providing warm, efficient, high-quality affordable homes is more important than ever.
“JV North members can rightly feel a great sense of achievement at reaching such significant milestones – most importantly enabling 30,000 residents to have a place to proudly call home.
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“It has been possible due to members having ambition and a big appetite to build coupled with fantastic long-term support from partners in particular Homes England as well as contractors and consultants on our framework.”
Mr Bowker said the consortium will continue to build on these relationships to continue building homes and highlighted plans to deliver over 4,000 properties as part of the 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme.
JV North was founded by five organisations and has since grown to 12 members. It was set up in recognition of the benefits of economies of scale when bidding for Homes England grant, while accessing the consortium’s £560m framework, as well as sharing intelligence, market data and risk.
Shahi Islam, director of affordable housing grants at Homes England, said: “As the government’s housing and regeneration agency, increasing the supply of quality affordable homes remains one of our key objectives and we are committed to supporting ambitious house builders of all sizes to build those homes and communities.”
Members of the consortium include: Bury Council, Cobalt Housing, Johnnie Johnson Housing, One Manchester, Peaks & Plains Housing Trust, Muir Group, Plus Dane Housing, Sovini, Stockport Homes, Torus, Weaver Vale Housing Trust and Wythenshawe Community Housing Group.
To mark the milestones, JV North held an event at Station Mews this week, with members and stakeholders invited to see the new development and take part in a roundtable debate on the future of social housebuilding.
The Liverpool fire station was immortalised in The Beatles’ song Penny Lane. The site has been redeveloped into seven homes, with the adjacent police station converted into 40 shared ownership apartments for over 55s in an £8m scheme.
Steve Coffey, chief executive of Torus, said: “The entire Torus Group is incredibly proud of what has been accomplished at Station Mews.
“Seeing modern, energy-efficient, affordable homes built in a key location and an iconic local landmark repurposed is just fantastic and testament to the partnerships that made it possible.
“Our standing as a JV North member very much helped unlock this site and the £1.7m provided to the scheme by Homes England ensures these much-loved buildings continue to contribute to the community of Allerton and, of course, Penny Lane.”
Last month, Torus secured permission to deliver hundreds of homes on the first phase of a scheme for a 1,000-plus home development.
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