Curo News

Bristol Cabinet Member for Housing impressed with progress of new homes in Lawrence Weston

Wed, 20 Apr 2022 11:01:47 Z

Image above (R-L): Homes England Head of Provider Management, John Kearney, Curo Head of Construction, Paul Fackrell, Curo Chief Executive, Victor da Cunha, Curo Health and Safety Manager, Andrew Culverhouse, Bristol City Council Cabinet Member for Housing Delivery and Homes, Councillor Tom Renhard, Homes England Senior Manager, Helen Bone, and Kensa Contracting Managing Director, David Broom, at Curo's development of 128 new homes, Century Park, in Lawrence Weston, Bristol.

Bristol City Council Cabinet Member for Housing Delivery and Homes, Councillor Tom Renhard, visited Curo’s Century Park and The Willows developments in Lawrence Weston to see the construction progress of 185 new homes for the city.

More than half of the new homes currently being delivered by Curo across the two schemes will be much-needed affordable housing for local families.

Cllr Renhard was accompanied on the visit by Curo Chief Executive, Victor da Cunha, and Homes England’s Head of Provider Management, John Kearney and Senior Manager, Helen Bone.

At Century Park, where Curo has already welcomed eight families this year, they visited the recently launched show home and saw how ground source heat pumps work. All homes at Century Park benefit from heat pumps, a greener, more environmentally-friendly way to provide domestic heating and hot water compared to gas boilers.

When completed, Century Park will deliver 128 homes in total, including 29 homes for social rent and nine homes for shared ownership.

At The Willows, where Curo is working with contractor Jehu Group to deliver the regeneration scheme, Cllr Renhard met James Beck, a local resident who is now employed as part of the building team on site.

Image above: Bristol City Council Cabinet Member for Housing Delivery and Homes, Councillor Tom Renhard (left) with Curo Chief Executive, Victor da Cunha (right) and Lawrence Weston resident, James Beck (centre), who is now part of the construction team at Curo's development of 57 new affordable homes at The Willows in Lawrence Weston, Bristol.

Due to be completed by the end of the year, The Willows will provide 38 homes for social and affordable rent and 19 homes for shared ownership. The project benefits from a Homes England grant of just over £2.8 million, alongside Curo’s investment of almost £5.7 million.

Curo will also refurbish an existing block of 12 apartments which will benefit from external panelling, new windows and new electricity supplies. The improvements will help reduce heating bills and increase comfort for residents.

Councillor Tom Renhard, Bristol City Council Cabinet Member for Housing Delivery and Homes says: “I’m impressed with the progress Curo is making in Lawrence Weston to deliver these much-needed new homes, while supporting the community and local economy. It’s fantastic that more than half of the new homes will be affordable housing, with many benefitting from low carbon ground source heat pumps. This will help many local families to live in good quality, future proof homes which will also support our city to move to closer to its net zero carbon ambitions.”

Image above: Representatives from Curo, Bristol City Council, the government's housing agency Homes England and contractor Jehu Group at Curo's development of 57 new affordable homes in Lawrence Weston, The Willows.

Victor says: “These new affordable homes will change the lives of many families struggling to take a first step on the property ladder or rent affordably in the local area. But our homes for sale are also helping young couples to achieve their homeownership dreams close to their families and friends – the majority of our new residents at Century Park so far are people under 35 years of age from Lawrence Weston, Shirehampton, Avonmouth and Brentry and most have purchased their homes with Help to Buy, available only on new-builds.

“Our developments in Lawrence Weston are great examples of partnership working between a housing association, the local authority and the government’s housing agency. We worked closely with Bristol City Council to secure the sites, while Homes England grant funding is making it possible for us to deliver a 100% affordable housing scheme at The Willows.”

Curo and Swan to boost delivery of new affordable housing with Homes England partnership

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 15:10:26 Z

West of England housing association Curo and Essex-based Swan have secured a new strategic partnership with Homes England to build more affordable homes.

Curo and Swan will receive £160.4 million funding from the new Affordable Homes Programme to deliver 2,425 homes over the next five years, in addition to their existing development pipelines.

The homes will be a mix of social/affordable rent and low-cost ownership tenures and will be delivered across the housing associations’ respective operating areas in South West and South East England.

This is the second time Curo and Swan have secured strategic partnership funding, after being granted £51.1 million in 2019 to build 1,067 new affordable homes by March 2024.

Aside from making possible much-needed new affordable homes, the government funding will also help drive investment in local economies and create jobs and skills.

In South West England, Curo works in partnership with housing associations Alliance Homes and Magna Housing to accelerate delivery of new affordable housing through their strategic partnership with Homes England.

Curo Chief Executive, Victor da Cunha, says: “I’m delighted that Curo and Swan have again been chosen as strategic partners of the government’s housing agency. Working with Swan as our joint Homes England strategic partner and our delivery partners in South West England, Alliance and Magna, has been very successful over the past few years and I’m sure it will continue to be a productive partnership in the future.

“Delivering another c. 2,500 homes with Homes England is an exciting prospect. The South West is in desperate need of additional social rent and low-cost homeownership housing at prices local people can genuinely afford. With this additional £160m investment, we will be able to boost output and further address the regional housing crisis.”

Swan Housing Association is one of the leading regenerating social landlords across Essex and East London. They recently acquired a second modular housing factory in Basildon, where they will precision engineer steel framed volumetric homes as part of their strategic partnership delivery.

John Synnuck, Swan CEO, says: “We are delighted that we now have this opportunity to continue to successfully work in partnership with Curo and deliver on Homes England’s ambitious affordable housing programme.

“We particularly welcome the focus in the new 5-year programme on the use of Modern Methods of Construction to deliver these much-needed affordable homes and we will use our second modular housing factory to build high quality new homes whilst creating new jobs, retraining staff from other sectors and supporting UK manufacturing to help the UK to build back better.”

Social rent homes are usually 50-60% of market prices, while affordable rent sits at about 80% of market rate. Many of the new homes funded by the strategic partnership grant will be available through the affordable homeownership schemes, helping more young people and families to get a foot on the housing ladder.

South West housing associations work together to speed up delivery of new affordable homes

Wed, 30 Sep 2020 09:29:05 Z

Image above: (L-R) Alliance Homes Chief Executive, Louise Swain, Magna Housing Chief Executive, Selina White, and Curo Chief Executive, Victor da Cunha, at Curo’s 700-home development in Bath, Mulberry Park.

Bath-based Curo has announced it will work with South West housing associations Alliance Homes and Magna Housing to help speed up delivery of new homes in the region through its Strategic Partnership with Homes England. The funding arrangement was secured jointly with Swan Housing Association last year.

The Curo/Swan Strategic Partnership with the government’s housing agency consists of a grant allocation of £51.1m to build 1,067 new affordable homes across South West and South East England by March 2024, in addition to each partners’ existing development plans. The programme will comprise a mix of homes available for social rent, affordable rent and shared ownership.

Alliance Homes and Magna Housing will work alongside Curo as delivery partners to ensure these much-needed new affordable homes are made available as quickly as possible for people in the South West.

Curo are already working on three affordable housing developments that are part-funded by money from the Strategic Partnership. In Bristol, they’re delivering 14 new homes on a former disused garage site at Victoria Avenue, while works on another 32 affordable homes have just started in the city’s Old Market district. In North Somerset, 17 new homes will be delivered by November 2021 in Weston-super-Mare. Curo will also start construction works on another 57-home affordable housing scheme in January next year, in the Lawrence Weston area of Bristol.

Curo Chief Executive, Victor da Cunha, said: “We’re delighted to announce our delivery partnership with Alliance and Magna. This is great news for people across our region who have been priced out of the housing market and who will benefit from the delivery of more new affordable homes, more quickly.

“We’re committed to working in partnership with the government’s housing agency, local authorities and our peers to build the homes our region needs. Alongside homes funded through the joint Curo/Swan Strategic Partnership with Homes England, Curo’s delivery pipeline will see the addition of almost 1,700 new homes in our region over the next five years.”

Alliance Homes and Curo operate across the same area in the West of England, including North Somerset, Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Bath & North East Somerset.

Alliance Homes Chief Executive, Louise Swain, says: “This delivery partnership with Curo ensures we can continue to create more high-quality affordable homes for people who need them. This pipeline of grant funding will support our strategy of delivering 2,000 new homes over the next ten years.”

Magna Housing own and manage homes across Somerset and Dorset. Chief Executive Selina White says: “We’re excited to join this delivery partnership and help accelerate our affordable house-building programme. We’re looking at innovative solutions to help us build more and we’ve already ordered 45 high quality modular homes and more will be delivered through this strategic partnership with Homes England.”

More affordable homes for West of England

Wed, 09 Oct 2019 10:48:51 Z

Image above: West of England Mayor, Tim Bowles (left) and Curo Chief Executive, Victor da Cunha (right) at Curo's Mulberry Park development in Bath

340 new affordable homes will be built in the West of England thanks to a commitment from local housing association Curo to invest £25m of government funding in the region.

A Strategic Partnership agreement between Homes England and Bath-based Curo has been agreed, with support from the West of England Combined Authority, which is working with partners to build more much-needed affordable homes, more quickly.

Curo and the West of England Combined Authority have been working together to enable a commitment that the funding will deliver homes in the West of England.

As part of this Strategic Partnership, secured in collaboration with Essex-based Swan Housing, Curo has agreed to earmark £25m to deliver more than 340 new affordable homes within the region over the next five years. The scheme has been made possible by a government grant from Homes England, the government body sponsored by The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), whose purpose is to accelerate the delivery of new homes.

This will begin with proposals to build up to 47 new affordable homes at Broadbury Road in Filwood, Bristol, and a planning application is currently being prepared.

Victor da Cunha, CEO of Curo, said: “We’re very pleased to be working with the West of England Combined Authority, Homes England and councils in our region to deliver these new homes. We work in an area which experiences acute housing affordability issues; building new housing will provide hundreds of local families with secure, long term homes.

“We very much welcome the government’s provision of grant funding through the Strategic Partnership scheme; it recognises Housing Associations’ key role in addressing the country’s housing crisis and allows us to accelerate our investment and build programme.”

Tim Bowles, West of England Mayor, said: “This partnership is responding to our need for more affordable homes, by committing to major development in our region.

“We need more homes for our residents to buy and rent. We need homes in the right places and at prices people can afford. The West of England Combined Authority is proud to support this partnership, and I am confident that it will deliver successful places where people will aspire to be.”

Schoolchildren bury time capsule in Midsomer Norton to mark start of construction of new Curo affordable homes

Tue, 05 Feb 2019 16:35:44 Z

Pupils from Somervale School today buried a time capsule on the site of a new development delivered by Curo and contractor E G Carter.

The time capsule was buried as part of a ground-breaking ceremony to mark the start of construction works at St Chads Green in Midsomer Norton, where 16 new affordable homes will be built by the end of the year.

Children were invited to provide items for the time capsule, which will remain underground for at least 30 years. Among the things they buried were a signed uniform tie in their school colours, pictures, letters describing life in 2019, their predictions for the future and a copy of Midsomer Norton Life magazine.

The new homes represent an investment by Curo of almost £2m and are being delivered in partnership with Homes England, who provided funding of £480,000 and Bath & North East Somerset, who have awarded a further £200,000 grant.

The development includes a mix of 15 houses with two, three and four bedrooms and a one-bedroom apartment. Four of the new homes will be available to buy via Shared Ownership, while the other 12 will be let at affordable rents to local people currently on the local authority’s housing waiting list.

Curo Chief Executive, Victor da Cunha, says: “We’re very excited to start building works with contractor EG Carter today at our new affordable development, where more local families will soon benefit from a secure, long-term home.

“Regeneration projects like this give us the opportunity to create high-quality affordable homes in key areas of towns and cities and we look forward to welcoming the new residents at St Chads Green later this year.

The 16 new family homes are replacing a former sheltered accommodation scheme of 23 flats, increasing the number of people to be housed at St Chads Green by 33 and responding to the greatest pressures on the housing list – which show that the highest demand for affordable housing in the local area is for family homes.

Bath & North East Somerset Council cabinet member for Economic and Community Regeneration, Councillor Paul Myers said: “As mayor of Midsomer Norton I am especially pleased to see this development break ground. Midsomer Norton is a great place to live and it’s fantastic that Curo, with support from the local authority and central government, are delivering a 100% affordable housing scheme here.

“This development will make a big difference to the local families who will move in at the end of the year, as they’ll be able to put down roots in a brand-new, modern and efficient home in an area they love.”

Joanna Postlethwaite, Headteacher of Somervale School, said: “The children were delighted to get involved in the event today and worked hard to put together a selection of items for the time capsule that will provide an historic snapshot of our school and town.

"We’re very pleased that 16 new families will get the chance to move to this great area soon and look forward to welcoming their children to our school.”

Curo, Swan and Homes England establish Strategic Partnership to deliver 1,000 affordable homes

Wed, 30 Jan 2019 15:26:02 Z

Image: Curo's development of 700 homes at Mulberry Park, Bath

It was announced today that Curo and Swan Housing Association (“Swan”) have successfully secured a Strategic Partnership with Homes England and a grant allocation of £51.1m to build 1,067 new affordable homes by March 2024, in addition to their existing development plans. The programme will comprise a mix of homes available for social rent, affordable rent and shared ownership.

The allocation was announced as part of Homes England’s second wave of Strategic Partnerships and is one of only 23 announced to date.

Curo, based in Bath, and Swan, based in Essex, operate in regions where high property values mean that homes for private rent and market sale are often unaffordable. By working in partnership the two housing associations will share resources and expertise to maximise the number of new homes that can be delivered in areas with high affordability pressures.

Victor da Cunha, Curo’s Chief Executive, says “Securing Strategic Partner status with Homes England is great news; we exist to provide affordable housing for local people and this additional funding will enable us to deliver hundreds of new homes over and above what’s already in our business plan.

“Specifically, it accelerates our total building programme to 2,520 homes over the next five years. This will increase our housing stock by more than 20% and means that we’ll continue to play a full and active role in addressing the regional housing crisis across the West of England.

“We’re proud to have been selected as one of only a small number of partners to work with Homes England. We’ve been asking government for some time to provide additional funding to speed up housing delivery, and they have listened.”

John Synnuck, Swan’s Chief Executive says “As a Housing Association working in Essex and East London, becoming a Strategic Partner of Homes England ensures that we can continue to build much needed affordable homes in Essex.

This year we celebrate our 25th Anniversary as an organisation and we continue to be as dedicated as ever to providing affordable homes for those who need them. We currently own and manage over 11,000 homes and this funding will enable us to deliver 505 much needed additional affordable homes over and above what’s already in our business plan representing a 5% increase in our housing stock - helping us towards our ambitious target of building an additional 10,000 homes by 2027.”