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Selwood Housing, a local housing association based in Wiltshire, has bought the disused former Margaret Stancomb school site in Trowbridge from Wiltshire Council, to deliver much needed affordable housing.
The town centre site has been derelict for over ten years, since the former school joined with Bellefield primary school.
Barry Hughes, Selwood Housing group chief executive said, "As a local housing association based in Trowbridge, we're delighted to have bought this brownfield site in order to deliver much-needed affordable homes. Our plans are to regenerate this site sympathetically, centered around the impressive 19th century school building, which we plan to retain and convert, to keep this historic landmark. We will build a range of affordable homes for shared ownership and social rent. The shared ownership homes will help local families get on to the housing ladder, and the homes for social rent will provide lower cost rented homes on a secure basis. We will be consulting with the local community to get feedback on these plans."
The consultation event will take place Monday 8 October at Trowbridge Cricket Club from 3pm - 7pm. Selwood Housing is writing to local residents and businesses in the area to let them know about the consultation.
Barry Hughes added, "As a local housing association, we understand the difficulties many people face in finding affordable homes, especially with the cost of privately renting a home increasing. Selwood Housing's plans for the Margaret Stancomb site will provide homes for local people and families who couldn't afford to privately rent or buy a home."
Toby Sturgis, cabinet member for spatial planning, development management and property said, "Where possible we are keen for suitable development on brownfield sites. I look forward to hearing more detail on these proposals to provide affordable housing for Wiltshire."
Selwood Housing is a not-for-profit housing association with over 6,400 homes for rent at affordable prices in Wiltshire, Somerset and Bath and North East Somerset. We also offer shared ownership, and other schemes to provide a wide variety of homes for people living in our communities. Any surpluses we make are invested back into our communities and this includes building more affordable homes locally.
There is a housing crisis and a shortage of affordable homes in the UK. In the Trowbridge Community area there are currently 346 households in need of a range of affordable rented homes, from one bedroom upwards.
There are also 155 households registered for shared ownership.
The Margaret Stancomb site development is part of our plan to provide more affordable homes within Wiltshire, Mendip and BANES.
Shared ownership is a great way of buying your own home, without having to find a huge deposit up front. With shared ownership you can buy a share of a home and pay a low rent on the rest. This gives you a great alternative to renting, if you can't afford to buy a home outright.
To find out more, visit https://www.selwoodhousing.com/find-a-home/buy-a-home/sharedownership/
You can register your details with us but you must also register with Help to Buy South https://www.helptobuysouth.co.uk/.
They will be competitively priced and based on market values. Buyers can purchase a 40% share and pay a low rent on the rest. Prices for this development will be released close to when the homes are available.
We plan to keep the original school building and convert it into three shared ownership homes.
If our planning application is approved, we will agree with Wiltshire Council the cost of supporting a set number of school places. Before we start building works we will pay this school contribution to Wiltshire Council. This is called a section 106 agreement.
We will also make other section 106 contributions which we will agree with Wiltshire Council.
At this stage we are keen to get views from the local community. This is not part of the formal planning consultation.
After we have considered everyone’s comments, we will review our plans and may make changes.
We will then submit our planning application to Wiltshire Council. Wiltshire Council will then hold a formal consultation period where you can comment on or object to the plans. Details of the plans and how to comment will be on Wiltshire Council’s website. Wiltshire Council’s planning committee will then decide whether to grant planning permission for our proposed development.