Much Needed Affordable Homes for Rural Village

Broadland Housing hosted an official ground breaking ceremony in Thurlton this week, as construction gets under way on 9 new affordable homes for the village.

Church Road, Thurlton is a new affordable housing scheme adjacent to the village school, which will provide 9 much needed affordable homes for people local to Thurlton with a mix of Bungalows, Flats and Houses.

Being built by Wellington Construction, the development will achieve Level 4 of the - Code of Sustainable Homes and will include a mixture of solar panels, air source heat pumps and photovoltaic panels to ensure that utility bills for new residents are as low as possible. The use of this solar technology has been made possible due to South Norfolk Council providing £80,000 funding towards the scheme.

Broadland Housing secured planning approval and funding for this scheme. The Chair of Thurlton Parish Council, Heather Longman together with the local Parish Councillors have also been instrumental in bringing this scheme forward.

Heather said: “It will be wonderful to see this scheme realised in Thurlton and I am sure that once it is ‘up and running’, it will be of huge benefit to this vibrant village, enabling young people to stay in the community in which they grew up.”

Broadland Chief Executive, Michael Newey (pictured in the JCB) said: “The lack of affordable housing is a real issue across the whole region, but particularly in rural communities, where local people are priced out of the market and forced to move further afield. In allocating these homes, a local lettings policy will be used to ensure that priority for housing is given to those with a local connection to the area”.

Councillor Derek Blake, South Norfolk Cabinet member for Planning, Housing and the Built Environment said: "This is yet another success story of providing affordable homes for local people and a great example of parish council, housing association, community and district council co-operating and I look forward to seeing the project completed as soon as possible."

Broadland Housing, South Norfolk Council and Thurlton Parish Council were joined by Directors of Wellington Construction to witness the scheme getting under way, and it is hoped that the new homes will be ready for local residents to move into in the Autumn of this year.