Work Begins on Hungerford over-55s and Extra Care Homes

The Leadbitter Group has begun the construction of 74 new affordable homes for the over-55s at The Priory in Hungerford on behalf of Sovereign Housing Association.

The development, which consists of one- and two-bedroom apartments, is due to be completed in the second half of 2013. The flats will be provided in two blocks, one comprising 28 apartments for the over-55s and the other 46 apartments with extra care facilities. All the properties in these blocks are for rent.

The extra care facility will boast additional support services, which could include a catering standard kitchen, a kiosk shop and hairdresser.

John Parry, Operations Director of Leadbitter’s Central Housing division, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Sovereign once again to provide much-needed housing for older people. This development will benefit from the lessons learnt during the completion of the Willow Close and Carnarvon Place developments in Newbury, which were also constructed on behalf of Sovereign.”

Roger Keeling, Sovereign’s Regional Development Director, said: “This project gave us the opportunity to make better use of the location to improve the housing for the over 55s in the west of the district, as well as improving the additional care facilities for those people in need of additional support.”

“We have worked very closely with West Berkshire Council to ensure that the accommodation we deliver is modern, designed to a high standard and meets the needs of the local population.”

“The development of other similar schemes, such as Carnarvon Place and Willow Close in Newbury, demonstrates our strong desire to invest in this much-needed sort of accommodation and services in West Berkshire, and to bring it up to date in terms of security, comfort and energy efficiency.”

Sovereign and West Berkshire Council have been working together to provide more contemporary accommodation for older residents of Hungerford for a number of years, resulting in this development of The Priory.

West Berkshire Executive Councillor for Housing, Roger Croft, said: “Demographically, there is only going to be an increase in demand for this type of accommodation in the district over the coming years, so this scheme is very welcome.”

The new development replaces 33 flats that were on the old Priory and Platt Court sites. The development benefited from investment from the Homes and Communities Agency and from West Berkshire Council, whose funding was for the building and the cost of fitting out one of the buildings to provide extra care services.

Preparatory work completed by Leadbitter involved the rehousing of common pipistrelle, soprano pipistrelle and brown long-earned bat colonies in a new bat barn built by Leadbitter. This allowed the demolition of 40 garages, which had previously been home to the bats, to begin.