Building a city centre housing development including retail units to contribute to the ongoing regeneration of Redhill, Surrey.
At a glance
What went in:
Priority area addressed
New development of social housing.
Budget
- the build contract was signed in June 2020
- practical completion took place February 2022
- all flats have EPC B.
- we secured £1,360,000 Homes England Grant
- cost to us £6,544,402
- total build cost: £7,904,402.
Timeframe to completion
Two years (from signing of contract to practical completion)
What came out:
- thirty two, one and two bedroom flats
- two commercial units
Executive summary
Reigate & Banstead Borough Council is a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) local authority without a Housing Revenue Account (HRA). In the last 10 years we have purchased temporary accommodation, both self-contained and shared facility to help keep homeless applicants both families and single people in the local area whilst supporting them into settled accommodation. We own and directly manage this accommodation within the housing needs team.
With rising numbers on our waiting list for social housing and fewer social housing voids to service the list, we developed our first Secure Council housing since LSVT over 20 years previous. The development comprised of 32 one and two bedroom flats all with balconies and two commercial units on the ground floor, situated in the centre of Redhill, Surrey.
Challenge and context
There were many challenges as this was a new workstream for RBBC, although we had recently built four ‘Homes First’ style bungalows using Rough Sleeper Accommodation Programme grant, with funding from a local Registered Provider of Supported Housing, Public Health and ourselves, these are used as temporary accommodation and held on a non-secure tenancy managed internally.
Officers had to upskill and also employ relevant consultants, this was very important when looking into the viability of setting up a Housing Company as a holding vehicle. Officers also had to take Members on the ‘journey’ so they were comfortable with the final ask and result.
The build took place through COVID-19 with the added complexities that brought.
The tender for a management and maintenance provider was also challenging as we had not done this before.
What we did
The development comprised of 32 one and two bedroom flats all with balconies and two commercial units on the ground floor, situated in the centre of Redhill, Surrey. The development also made a significant contribution to the on-going regeneration of the town centre.
Various options for the scheme were modelled including:
- Council direct ownership with all flats let at affordable rent.
- Transfer the development to a Council wholly owned. company and let in the PRS.
- Sell the residential units as market homes.
This was a significant moment for the local authority to commit to return to holding secure tenancy stock. Much time was spent explaining the options to Members and taking them on the journey with us so they understood and were happy with their final decision for the scheme. This has also given officers the ‘green light’ to work up further developments for Member consideration.
The Housing Needs Team is a small team with no experience of managing secure tenancies, we tendered the management and maintenance contract, and a local Registered Provider manages the stock. This has turned out to be more important than we realised at the time with the more recent introduction of all the new regulations and standards introduced by the Regulator of Social Housing.
All tenants were nominated from the Council’s housing waiting list or transfer list.
The difference
The development was named the region’s Best Large Social Housing Development in the LABC Building Excellence Awards 2022 which was testimony to the excellent quality of build delivered by Neilcott on this project.
