Affordable homes boost planned

TOWN Hall bosses at Warrington are hoping to set up partnerships with about six housing association to boost the provision of affordable homes in the borough.
A summit meeting is planned with the directors of registered social housing providers within a 20-mile radius of the borough to launch a wider approach to partnership to deliver affordable homes.
Currently it is estimated some 111 units of affordable housing will be provided during 2008-09 against a target of 166 per year.
Estimated delivery for 2009-2010 is 200.
But some housing associations are experiencing lending difficulties which will delay affording housing scheme they are involved in and the borough council, having secured some £14.5 million of funding from the Housing and Communities Agency, is looking at ways to enable the housing association to provide the necessary match funding through other public sector borrowing opportunities.
The site of the former police training centre at Bruche is seen as a key site for a pilot development scheme.
A number of sites are expected to contribute to the supply of affordable homes in Warrington. They include Croft House, Churchill Avenue, Culcheth, Statham Avenue, Carrington Park, Chapelford, Farrell Street, the former Cantilever Garden centre site, Saxon Park, Folly Lane, Britannia Works, Bewsey, Longshaw Street, Greenall’s site in Loushers Lane, Chester Road, Thelwall Lane, Chapelford, Longbutt Lane, Lymm, Kingswood and Westbrook and the Bruche police training centre.
The council also says affordable homes provision will be an integral part of it regeneration framework, particularly the Warrington Waterfront, The Central Hub, the Bridge Street Quarter, the Cockhedge Quarter and a new urban village at Bruche.
The borough council’s definition of an affordable home is one that is accessible to people with a household income equivalent to average incomes in Warrington.