A HOUSING group aims to help tackle the growing waiting lists for affordable homes in Northumberland by pressing ahead with a £24.4m investment programme over the next five years.
Social housing provider Bernicia plans to build almost 240 homes in the region to help ease the severe shortage of rented accommodation.
Bedlington, Blyth, Ashington and rural Northumberland are all in line to get new housing schemes, along with Killingworth and Newcastle’s Great Park development.
Bernicia has pledged to crack on with the major construction programme after receiving confirmation of a £2.28m Government grant towards the build, some of which is already under way.
It comes less than three weeks since Northumberland county councillors were told the unitary authority’s housing waiting list now stands at more than 13,700, of whom almost 7,500 have been assessed as having some form of housing need.
A Conservative call for more of the £3.5m annual council tax income from second homes to be ring-fenced and used to build houses for rent was rejected by the council.
Now Bernicia says it will play its part in tackling the crisis by building 239 homes of varying types to meet the needs of growing numbers of people wanting to rent.
Deputy chief executive John Johnston said: “We will continue with our plans to invest in both the physical and social sustainability of our estates, neighbourhoods and local communities.
“This involves much more than just improving housing stock. A combination of actions is needed to tackle the social and environmental issues faced by our communities and we aim to take a lead in delivering them.”
Bernicia – with financial support from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) – has just completed the construction of 10 supported housing bungalows in Bedlington for people with learning difficulties.
Building work will start soon on a further 39 units of retirement housing and another 10 bungalows in Bedlington.
At the Moorhouse Estate in Ashington another HCA-backed scheme will see 26 bungalows and houses built in the next two years, and 12 three-bedroom houses in North Seaton are scheduled for completion by the end of 2014.
Discussions are taking place on a scheme to build seven houses in a rural Northumberland location, and other projects include six new homes in Cowpen Road, Blyth, by December 2012 and five three-bedroom houses Greenacres in Killingworth by next spring.
Finally, at Newcastle’s Great Park, Bernicia plans to build 38 flats, 11 houses and five bungalows by 2015 on the Persimmon/Taylor Wimpey development.
