Five local families received the keys to their new Cornwall Council-owned homes in Perranporth this week. Cornwall Council owned company Carrick Housing has built one 4 bedroom, one 3 bedroom and three 2 bedroom houses to rent in the Tregundy neighbourhood of Perranporth in Cornwall.
The Homes and Communities Agency contributed £245,000 towards the building of the Perranporth homes, and these are the first new homes in the south west to be built by a council arms-length management organisation.
Colin Molton, regional director for the Homes and Communities Agency in the South West said: “Carrick Housing are to be commended for the completions. They are amongst the first homes completed by an ALMO that assists to meet local housing needs and aspirations. The HCA is pleased to have played a part in helping this happen.”
Jayne Cutting, a teaching assistant at Perranporth’s primary school, says “I’ve lived in Perranporth since 1959 and been brought up here. I have two girls and I want them to be brought up here too. I work at the local school as a teaching assistant and have family in Perranporth.” She went on to say “The house is absolutely fantastic and bigger than I expected, lots of space, it’s really lovely.”
Mum of disabled toddler Marshall Janson, Stephanie Harris, says “We are delighted to be living near our family in Perranporth, it will be so good for me and Marshall to be near our support network. And, he’ll be able to go to the same school that I went to – the school his cousins go to now.”
Gerald Chin-Quee, a council tenant from Falmouth and Chair of the Board, said “Tenants told us three years ago that they wanted us to help the council create more council houses for local people to rent. These additional homes are the first council-owned homes in this area for thirty years, and as well as developing further Carrick Housing homes, we are also helping the council build the first Cornwall Council homes.”
In a popular rural seaside town, the Perranporth houses have been given an allocation requiring tenants to have a local connection criteria to the parish.
Kristiana Meadows works at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust in Truro. She said “I grew up in Perranporth, my family live there. My children are close to their aunt and my parents – it will make a huge difference to us being close to them.” Her husband Matthew went on to say “The house is huge compared to what we’ve got now. We have been in a two bedroom house with the three children. Now they’ll have their own room, even our two year old, which means we’ll have our own room too.”
The new homes are built to level 3 of the Code for Sustainable Homes, which means that all aspects of the house and its construction is designed to be at least 25% more efficient than new builds that meet the current building regulations standards. All five houses are fitted with ground source heat pumps which are better for the environment and are about £250 a year cheaper to run than traditional heating systems.
These new homes have been funded by the national housing and regeneration agency - the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), Cornwall Council and Carrick Housing. They are the first to be built by council-owned company Carrick Housing, who are also developing housing in St Newlyn East and Falmouth. Carrick Housing manages about 3700 homes on behalf of Cornwall Council and was able to bid for money to build new housing following two successful inspections by the independent Audit Commission.
Cllr Mark Kaczmarek, Cornwall Council cabinet member for housing said “These new homes have been built to an excellent standard. We have a lot of local people waiting for an affordable home to rent and Cornwall Council is pleased to be one of the first councils in the country to receive government funding to develop more homes.”