A housing scheme which brought a run-down part of Bradford “back from the brink” has been recognised as one of the best in the country.
A multi-million pound transformation of the Chain Street area of Goitside is well under way.
So far a row of 36 outdated flats, once dubbed Death Row by locals, have been remodelled into 16 popular family-size homes in a £1.26 million regeneration scheme.
This work, run by social landlord Incommunities, Bradford Council and the Homes and Communities Agency, has been named in a list of the Top 50 affordable homes developments in the UK.
The next phase of the scheme, to build 32 new houses where outdated blocks of flats once stood, has begun. The homes will be built by Barnfield Construction, which will sell ten of the properties. A further 12 will be privately rented through the firm QLM and the remaining ten will be used for social housing and let out through Incommunities.
Bradford Council is supplying £707,000 in funding and the Homes and Communities Agency has given a further grant worth £234,000. Also in the pipeline is a new “linear park”, complete with a town square and eye-catching boulevard, planned for the heart of the regeneration project.
Geraldine Howley, Incommunities Group Chief Executive said: “We are delighted that our Chain Street conversion has been recognised in this prestigious Top 50 listing supported by the Homes and Communities Agency.
"This has been a unique development providing the first family-sized city centre housing in many years. We are now looking forward to a new chapter in the transformation of the area with work starting on phase two in partnership with Bradford Council, the HCA and developers.”
Richard Panter, Area Manager at the Homes and Communities Agency said: “This new phase of the Chain Street redevelopment builds on the success of the high quality conversions that Incommunities completed last year. This shows what can be achieved through partners working together to create a mixed tenure development that meets the different needs of a diverse community.”
Councillor Val Slater, Executive Member for housing, transport and planning at Bradford Council, said: “It’s the exciting next step in bringing the Goitside area back from the brink to be a desirable part of the city, especially with the proposed green way into the city centre. It is an important piece of the jigsaw in the wide regeneration of the whole of the Bradford city centre.”
David Orr, Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation, added: “Very often when people talk about a new housing project, folk around it think, ‘Oh no, that will be a bad thing’.
“But this work proves that if you do get a quality regeneration, it completely transforms a neighbourhood. This isn’t just good for the people who live in the houses, it’s good for the whole community. When they do phase two, that will make this area even more vibrant and the benefit will really spread wide. We will have taken these old, horrible buildings and turned them into something great, and demolished nasty old tenements and built fantastic new homes.”