New council-owned social housing could soon be built in Wrexham for the first time in over 30 years.
Last week, the council’s executive board gave the green light to demolish the old Nant Silyn Care Home in Caia Park. Once the demolition has been completed the plan is to build 12 new council houses on the site.
The building has been closed since 2015 and has had to be boarded up and secured following reports of anti-social behaviour near the site.
New houses will help meet the need for modern housing
We are now able to purchase land for the purposes of building new social housing thanks to the Build & Buy scheme which was approved back in 2015.
The Nant Silyn land already belongs to the council so the ownership will now just need to be transferred to the council’s Housing Revenue Account (HRA) so that the new build scheme can be progressed.
Leader of the Council, Cllr Mark Pritchard said: “We have taken the first step to building the first new council houses in Wrexham for many years so this is a very encouraging sign. We will now be working with Welsh Government and a partner to build 12 new houses on this site.
“There is a demand for modern, 21st century housing in the county borough and I am very pleased that we are taking the initiative to make this happen. There will hopefully be many other schemes like this to come in the near future.”
“We’ve also been investing record amounts – £56.4m in 2017/18 alone – in modernising our existing housing stock so I think this shows that the is a bright future ahead for social housing in Wrexham.”
What happens next
The next step will be to get planning permission approved and ensure we can access Welsh Government funding programmes to support the building project.
A Housing Finance Grant is available to the Council and the indicative allocation of funding is £1.6m in 2018/19 with a further £1.1m in 2019/20. The funding is provided by the Welsh Government to support its commitment to deliver 20,000 new affordable homes within its current term of office.
A focus on housing people with additional needs
Lead Member for Health & Adult Social Care, Cllr Joan Lowe said: “The plan is to redevelop the site of the Nant Silyn care home and build brand new properties which will focus on specialist and adapted housing for people with additional needs. I’m delighted that the scheme has been given the green light to progress.”
Local Member for Smithfield, Cllr Adrienne Jeorrett, said: “I’m very pleased that Smithfield will be the first area to receive the new proposed council houses and this is excellent news for the Pont Wen area. The development will now have to go through a formal project management and planning process, both of which will enable views of the local community to be taken into account as the project develops.”
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