Shadow Housing Minister Emma Reynolds has sung the praises of a Redditch housing project which she says is a perfect example of what could be done right across the country.
The Labour candidate for Wolverhampton North East had arrived in the borough hot-foot from the launch of her party’s manifesto in Manchester on Monday to look at two schemes being built by Redditch Co-operative Homes, part of the Accord Group.
The social housing scheme, on the site of the old Hewell Road swimming pool, will see the construction of 30 affordable, super-insulated, carbon neutral homes.
“What’s really interesting is that Accord is building these homes to a higher standard than many privately built homes,” said Ms Reynolds.
“This is absolutely a model for the future; I’ve seen similar sites by Accord and have been really impressed by the size of the homes and the quality of construction.
“This country is desperately short of homes and we would build 200,000 new homes every year for five years; affordability is a key part and it’s about doing as Redditch borough council have done here. This scheme provides a benchmark.”
Rebecca Blake, Labour candidate for Redditch, added: “Redditch has a big housing problem – for instance last week we had 216 inquiries for just six council houses. This project with Accord is part of our solution.”
The Hewell Road project, valued at £3.6 million, will feature 24 one-bedroom apartments, five two-bedroom houses and one two-bedroom bungalow. Completion date is expected to be March 2016.
Also contesting the Redditch parliamentary seat with Mrs Blake are Karen Lumley (Conservative Party), Seth Colton (Independent Party), Peter Jewell (Ukip), Hilary Myers (Liberal Democrat), and Kevin White (Green Party).
