WATES RESIDENTIAL STARTS WORK AT TWO FURTHER CARDIFF SITES
National developer, Wates Residential, has commenced work on its third and fourth sites in Cardiff as part of the Council's flagship house building programme, Cardiff Living, which will ultimately see the development of 1,500 homes at 40 sites across the city.
The two sites, Ty To Maen in St Mellons and Mount Pleasant Lane in Llanrumney, are expected to reach completion in early 2019, and will significantly boost the city's affordable homes offer.
Work at Ty To Maen involves the construction of eight units, including two affordable two-bed homes and six homes of three beds for open market sale.
At Mount Pleasant Lane, the Wates team is building 31 units on the site of the former Llanrumney Depot, all of which will be for available for affordable rent or purchase through Cardiff Council. The development will include 21 two-bed houses, in addition to four one-bed and six two-bed apartments.
Wates' ongoing work as part of Cardiff Living includes the building of 40 affordable homes and 66 homes for open-market sale at Captain's View and Captain's Walk, also in Llanrumney, along with the creation of 192 mixed tenure homes at the Silvervale Park development at Willowbrook West in St Mellons, with completion expected in 2020.
Designed to tackle growing demand for housing in the city, Cardiff Living is a ten-year partnership between Cardiff Council and Wates Residential and is set to create approximately 600 council homes for rent or assisted home ownership and a further 900 for sale on the open market.
As part of the project, Wates and the Council have made a joint pledge to create employment and training opportunities for local residents. To date, Wates' work on Cardiff Living has generated £237,000 in economic, environmental and social value, and 824 training and employment weeks have been created for people across Cardiff.
As part of this commitment to supporting the city, Wates hosted a ‘Seeing is Believing' Social Enterprise (SE) event in Cardiff, which was designed to demonstrate to other businesses in the city the difference SEs can make to the lives of local people. Since the event, Wates has engaged with four local SEs, including the appointment of GR Cleaning to a contract worth over £50,000.
Cardiff Council Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities, Cllr Lynda Thorne said: "I'm delighted to see Cardiff Living progressing so well and now with the start of work on another two sites, the programme is really gaining momentum.
"Delivering good quality, affordable homes for people in Cardiff is a priority for the Council and this is an exciting time as we are one of only a handful of local authorities building new council homes.
"We recently announced our intention to boost our target for providing new council homes by 1,000 to a total of 2,000 homes, the first 1,000 of which will be completed by 2022. Cardiff Living plays a significant role in delivering that goal.
"I'm particularly pleased to see work beginning on the site of the former Llanrumney Depot where our housing maintenance service used to be based. The new homes planned there will help regenerate the local area and provide affordable housing options for the local community."
Paul Nicholls, Managing Director of Wates Residential South, commented: "Cardiff Living is a transformative programme of housebuilding, and it is a great honour for Wates Residential to be working closely with the council in building properties that will improve the lives of a great number of people across the city.
"It is very exciting to see work progressing so rapidly with the start of two new developments at Ty To Maen and Mount Pleasant Lane. We look forward to using our growing presence across Cardiff to further contribute to the city's economy."