Town centre social housing scheme finally completed

Work on a new social housing complex in Newtown that originally stopped when a contractor went into administration in 2019 has finally been completed.

The low-carbon project on the former bowling green off Back Lane was recently completed for Powys County Council.

The original contract that won the tender, Jistcourt of Port Talbot, went into administration in 2019.

Work was finally handed over to Pave Aways who completed the £3.4m project.

The original development had been designed by Newtown-architects Hughes Architects.

Powys County Council’s Affordable Housing Team has developed a three-storey building containing 26 one-bedroomed flats on land adjacent to Newtown Bowling Club.

The development, which will be owned and managed by the council, will provide much needed low-carbon accommodation that will be available at an affordable rent and allocated to applications on the Powys Common Housing Register.

The Welsh Government provided a £2.2m through its Innovative Housing Programme towards the development of the flats.

Cllr Matthew Dorrance, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for a Fairer Powys, said: “I’m delighted that work has been completed and I would like to thank our construction partners Pave Aways for helping us deliver this social housing development in Newtown.

“We cannot build the stronger, fairer, greener Powys we want without tackling the housing emergency in the county.  The only way we can achieve this is by building high-quality council housing.

“Not only does this development and the two other social housing schemes we are building in Newtown meet the needs of the local community, but they are also important schemes that will help us tackle the housing emergency.”

Pave Aways’ Construction Director Jamie Evans said: “Not only has this scheme delivered high specification new homes that will be more economical for tenants to run, it has also had numerous other benefits for the community.

“As well as utilising businesses and suppliers within 20-miles of Newtown, bringing an important boost to the economy, we offered training and work experience opportunities on site, giving people the opportunity to explore a career in construction and learn new skills.

“We also supported other organisations in the area, for example, donating laptops to schools so students had access to online learning during lockdown and giving our time free of charge to not for profit groups and charities that needed work on their premises.”

Jamie added: “The innovative method of the build to ensure it met the low carbon standards has also been a learning experience for us and the sub contractors involved, leading to an improvement in the skills now available within the construction sector locally.”