First tenant moves into new homes in Corby

Published by Sandeep for Riverside in Housing

The first tenants move into the new development at Rockingham Road, Corby and Riverside who is managing 49 homes on the scheme welcomed the tenants with a starter pack and flowers to celebrate their first day in their new home.

The £7.6 million scheme, of which £3.1m was funded by the Homes and Communities Agency’s (HCA) Kickstart scheme, will deliver 67 new homes for rent, shared ownership and outright sale when completed.  The scheme is a partnership between Riverside, Corby Borough Council, the HCA and developer Westleigh Developments. Work is scheduled for completion in spring 2012 by main contractor Westleigh.

Mathew Byrne and his partner Terri Forbes with their baby Keira Rose Byrne moved into a two bedroom house on Friday (2 December), Mathew said: “I’m really looking forward to living here, the house is ideal size for us and having a garden for Keira to play in when she is older is great.”

Taslim Molvi, Senior Allocations Officer for Riverside said: “Corby is a new area that Riverside is involved in and we have been working closely with Corby Borough Council to get people in the properties that have been on their housing list.”

“We have families, young couples and single people moving into all 32 rented homes on the development”

Riverside’s Team was joined by Corby Borough Council’s Councillor Thomas Beattie and Corby Borough Council’s Housing Strategy Manager Jacqui Page, to welcome the family to the area.

The former community football and sports ground site has been converted into 67 new homes, with a mixture of one and two bedroom apartments and two and three bedroom houses.  As well as the 32 units for rent, there will be 17 houses available for sale on the shared ownership scheme (part buy part rent) through Riverside Home Ownership and the remaining 18 units will be available for outright sale through Westleigh.

All of the homes have been built using timber frame construction methods which improves energy efficiency.  They are also some fitted with solar panels for heating the water and these should assist all residents to limit costs of the utilities.

Gary Turner, Head of Partnerships and Investments at Leicester-based Westleigh, comments: “We are very pleased to be partnering Riverside in this project to provide 49 affordable homes for the Corby area.  We have an extensive track record of working in partnership with housing associations across the Midlands and know this scheme will be just as successful. Of the 18 homes available for outright sale, 16 have already been snapped up by eager homebuyers who have been able to take advantage of the Government-backed HomeBuy Direct scheme.”