Councillors check out new homes progress
Today, Councillor Damian White, Leader of Havering Council and Councillor Michael Deon Burton, Councillor for South Hornchurch ward visited the development at Napier and New Plymouth House, Rainham.
Project director Keith Ward, from Wates Residential, the Council’s joint venture partner, accompanied them around the development.
The new homes have progressed now to the fifth and sixth stories of the build, with brickwork, bathroom, utility and windows installation starting soon.
The plans for the Napier and New Plymouth House site have been designed to meet the high demand for affordable housing across the borough and include 197 high-quality, council-rented and mix of affordable housing properties which local people can be proud to call home.
The £1.5 billion joint venture project, which also includes Waterloo Estate and Queens Street in Romford and Serena, Solar and Sunrise Courts in Hornchurch, will see around 3,500 high-quality new homes delivered in Havering over the next 12 to 15 years.
It will seek to double the amount of council rented accommodation and more than double the number of affordable homes for local people.
All residents who moved off the site to enable the regeneration have been guaranteed the right to return to the brand-new properties when they are ready, which is estimated to be winter 2022.
Councillor Damian White, Leader of Havering Council, added:
“Despite the extra challenges caused by the pandemic, the development is progressing well and in line with our plans to create quality homes for local people.
“It was very exciting to see the development taking shape. I very much look forward to welcoming residents to their new homes.”
A production crew also accompanied the visitors from Mediorite, an award-winning creative agency and social enterprise working with Havering Council to produce films and social media content on the Council’s regeneration schemes.
The project will create paid work opportunities for young Havering residents, recruited locally, to gain industry experience on a series of projects across the borough.
Georgia Busser, from Rainham, is the first young person to be involved, and she said:
“It was such a good experience to be part of a crew on a shoot, which was really different to what I’d done at college.
"It has helped me to understand what I want to do and given me more confidence. Thank you so much for the opportunity!”
Lucy Ferguson, Founder of Mediorite, said:
"It's brilliant to be able to add in paid roles for local young people and offer Havering Council youth employment opportunities as part of this film project.
"We've already met some really talented young filmmakers from the borough, like Georgia, and we're just getting started!"