First Newton Abbot council housing since the 90s

Teignbridge District Council (TDC) is hoping to build new social housing in Newton Abbot for the first time in a quarter of a century.

Plans are in place to build on two parcels of TDC-owned land – at East Street and Drake Road in Newton Abbot. Work is expected to start by April 2020, with completion scheduled by March 2021, subject to Planning Permission.

The development will deliver within current budgets a mix of social rental homes and help contribute to tackling the Climate Emergency by building on small infill sites.

Five homes will be built in East Street: two large one-bedroom wheelchair accessible flats on the ground floor with a mix of one and two-bedroom flats on the first and second floors. The site will also benefit from having two Disabled Parking spaces, with the infrastructure to accommodate car charging points.

At Drake Road, two three-bedroom homes, with car parking, will replace an old garage block in Drake Road, as well as providing four additional public parking spaces to offset the loss of the garages to adjoining residents.

Low running costs

The new homes will be designed in line with carbon reduction principles and with the aim of keeping running costs low for future tenants. It is hoped that the East Street development will provide opportunities for existing social housing tenants wishing to ‘downsize’ to a sustainable town centre location. This would free up current homes for reallocation. Drake Road will provide two large three-bedroom houses aimed at helping two families currently in overcrowded circumstances.

A grant funding application has been made to Homes England, with TDC investing around two-thirds of the capital cost of the developments.

Councillor Jackie Hook, TDC’s Portfolio Holder for Housing, said: “This is a really important initiative, aimed at improving the homes available to residents by redeveloping small central sites. We hope that by targeting these homes at identifiable needs we will ensure that they benefit local people.

“These projects will hopefully be the start of a much needed programme of small developments with the objective of reducing the 1,000 or so local applicants on the council’s Housing Register, who are waiting for a good quality, truly affordable rented home in Teignbridge”.