Digging deep: the challenges of rural developments

Published by Hannah Wooderson for 24dash.com in Housing

When David Hannon joined Rooftop Housing Group as Development Director he found that building homes in rural communities was a challenge, heightened by protected slow worms, a buried skeleton and Roman relics.

Some people like to suggest that development is the 'sexy' part of social housing. In fact, I've even been known to say so myself. There's no doubt it can be great fun discussing ideas with architects and meeting with developers and talking about all the latest energy-saving gizmos that we are going to incorporate into our new properties.

However, development can be very hard work. And in the current economic climate it's only likely to get harder. We all know now that whoever forms the next government there's going to be even less funding available for new homes - despite the need for them being as great as ever. But, I've been working in housing long enough to know not to panic. That's not because I'm blasé about the current situation but rather because if you believe in what you are doing and you do it well, you are in a better position to ride out the storm.

As a born and bred Brummie, some people who know me were surprised when I joined Rooftop Housing Group, down in the wilds of Worcestershire, but I didn't arrive here with rose-tinted spectacles. I was expecting to find the demands of working with a mainly rural housing association just as tough as those I have encountered in my 25 years working in the metropolitan areas. And that is exactly what happened.

Getting new homes built is a huge challenge, whether they are in the middle of a city or the middle of a small village or market town. It's a sobering thought that from site identification to new residents moving in, it takes on average two years to build new homes - and that's when things go well!

So, I think there's a lot to be said for Sharing Positive Practice in Rural Development. In fact, at Rooftop we've recently produced a booklet called just that. The 60-page document was unveiled at a summer celebration of cream teas and cricket held in the picturesque Worcestershire village of Eckington.

We chose this venue because it was the site of a 12-propery development that we completed last year. And from start to finish this particular scheme threw up a number of challenges which form rather a good, real life, example of a typical rural housing development. Our booklet doesn't pretend to have all the answers but it does highlight the type of questions that get thrown at you - the expected, and the unexpected.

Among the 'unexpected' was an almost-intact human skeleton, unearthed during archaeological investigation. The body was identified as belonging to a middle aged man, from the Roman period, who is likely to have been a centurion. His hob-nailed shoes were amazingly identifiable and this type of footwear was almost exclusively worn by soldiers. There then followed more extensive investigation carried out by the Archaeology and Antiquities Department from the University of Birmingham where the body, and a range of other interesting artifacts found at the site are now stored.

Not only that, a host of slow worms that were found to be living on the proposed site. As a protected species, the slow worms had to be painstakingly removed and rehoused. Both the Romans and the slow worms added time and cost to the development process, but we never waivered from our commitment.

Another key aspect of this development was the involvement of partner organisations. The bottom line is that from site identification in 2003 it took five years before anybody moved in to one these properties. The amount of people and organisations involved is enormous when you think about it. We couldn’t do it on our own, of course. Rooftop is a member of the Matrix Partnership and their expertise proved invaluable to the whole process. Developers Thomas Vale Construction carried out the work as a design and build project - doing a fantastic job. And there was Wychavon District Council and Eckington Parish Council to engage with for the entire time.

I think the important thing here is that even when things aren't going so smoothly you have to keep talking, and keep remembering that in the end we all want the same thing: provide affordable homes for local people, to enable them to live and work in their part of the wonderful English countryside.

Building houses, and creating homes, takes time and effort. But that's no reason to give up. It's also not a reason to cut back on build quality or design. Indeed, properties at Roman Meadow are of such high quality that they effortlessly blend into the local setting.

The demand for these properties was very high, and the booklet also explains how Rooftop dealt with the application process, working closely with the local authorities in particular, to ensure that the homes went to people with a local connection. Some of the applications we received had, shall we say, tenuous local links. One person claimed to have attended primary school in the village 30 years previously, while another even suggested that travelling everyday on a train that passed through Eckington was a suitable qualification!

The archeology makes the site special from a historical perspective, but it is the quality of the architecture, design and build specifications and standards that makes the site significant from a housing and positive practice perspective. This mix of family homes and bungalows provide comfortable, affordable properties with eco-credentials, low running costs and adaptable spaces, set within a highly desirable rural location. Perhaps the biggest achievement of the development is that it is indistinguishable as rented housing.

After the book launch, the afternoon finished off with a friendly cricket match of Rooftop Housing Group & Friends vs Pershore Cricket Club. I even managed to stay in bat for a couple of overs, but that didn’t stop Pershore claiming a narrow victory of just 13 runs!

The booklet, Sharing Positive Practice in Rural Development, can be downloaded from www.rooftopgroup.org. We also have a limited number of hard copies available by emailing communications@rooftopgroup.org

Modern methods of construction
The Affordable Rural Housing Commission report contains some debate as to whether or not Modern Methods of Construction have really been making a difference to rural schemes. However in Eckington, the off-site timber construction partnership with Thomas Vale supported the completion of the development in a number of ways:

• Restricting the number of deliveries required reduced heavy goods traffic on country lanes in a quiet residential area and reduced the need for extensive on-site storage for the materials to produce roof frames.

• The developer paid particular care to health and safety issues that affected the local community, such as the time of day when parents and toddlers were passing to go to playgroup

Extra attention was paid to keeping the road and pavement areas as clean as possible, given the large amount of mud being churned up during the early build phase.

Traditional vs. timber
The cost of a timber frame dwelling is marginally more expensive, in terms of actual costs, than a traditionally constructed one. However, the erection of a timber frame is not as dependant on good weather and it can be constructed with speed saving time and money- the Eckington development saved Rooftop an estimated six weeks of construction time. The framework was completed within a week and the roof and the windows installed, making the building watertight.

With a traditional construction the internal work cannot be completed until all the external brickwork has been finished, and therefore is more prone to delays due to poor weather conditions. Because the building shell had already been made watertight, the outer skin of brickwork, render, lightweight panelling, which are normally dependant on the weather, were no longer on the critical path and were completed during the internal fitting out.