A Bristol-led team of building innovators is hoping to develop one of the UK’s most sustainable housing schemes in a suburb of the city.
Plans for the 161-home development in Southmead – which would also help tackle the affordable housing crisis in the city - have been submitted to Bristol City Council by housing association United Communities and HAB Housing, the pioneering firm launched by Kevin McCloud, the designer, writer and TV presenter best known for his work on the Channel 4 series Grand Designs.
The two businesses were selected by the council to develop the super-sustainable exemplar scheme on the former Dunmail Primary School site.
The project has been designed by the Bristol office of Stirling Prize winning architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris and Clifton Emery Landscape Architects. Arup are the project engineers.
The mixed tenure housing development is set around a central green lane, which provides a 20 metre-wide promenade for people and wildlife. This connects to neighbouring parkland which will also have a children’s play area.
Some 30% of the homes will be affordable housing for United Communities – both for rent and shared ownership – while 25% will be for a new form of ethical private rent.
These will be delivered by Bristol and Bath Regional Capital (BBRC), the civic-led, socially focussed investor. High-quality properties will be offered to rent with longer leases and capped rental increases that will enable residents much greater peace of mind and ability to plan for the future.
HAB will offer local residents and people working in the Southmead area the first opportunity to buy one of the 68 market sale homes.
The homes – which will all be built to very high levels of energy efficiency and so will benefit from low running costs – are being designed following extensive consultation with local residents. The project will include one and two-bed apartments, and two, three and four-bed houses, which, combined with the choice of tenure, gives a huge range of options.
If the planning application is successful, formal sales on the scheme will begin early next year. Construction is expected to start next spring, with final scheme completion two years later in spring 2019.
HAB chairman Kevin McCloud said: “We’re excited to get to work on a project in our home city of Bristol, as it’s the ideal place for a pioneering project like Dunmail. This scheme provides us with the opportunity to deliver a project that Southmead can be really proud of and we’re chomping at the bit to get started.”
City council cabinet member for homes and communities Paul Smith the project was good news for the people of Southmead and Bristol as a whole. 
“We want to see more local partnerships involving local developers, local finance, the local community and a local housing association providing homes for local people,” he said
United Communities chief executive Oona Goldsworthy added: “We’re one step further on with this new site in Southmead and we aim to build something of quality, richness and sustainability for the area. The 161 new homes will help to tackle the affordable housing crisis in the city, by providing a mix of homes for sale, rent and shared ownership.”
To have nearly two thirds of the scheme as affordable or ethical housing was a ground-breaking proportion within housing development schemes, said BBRC CEO Edward Rowberry .
“We are delighted to be involved with this distinctive housing proposition funded by ethically motivated investment,” he said.
“This innovative project will provide homes – not just tenancies – empowering local people through certainty of accommodation and predictable rents. As such, we are confident that this scheme will pioneer the way for similar regeneration and housing designs in the future.”
United Communities is a community-based social housing provider, formed in April 2013 when United Housing Association and Bristol Community Housing Foundation came together to form a community partnership.
United Housing Association was formed in 1986 to provide housing for black and ethnic minority people in Bristol. Bristol Community Housing Foundation was responsible for transforming housing in Horfield by initially building 300 new homes.
The combined association now has just over 1,850 properties across the wider Bristol area.
HAB stands for Happiness Architecture Beauty. The company was set up by Kevin McCloud in 2007 to challenge the way identikit volume housing was built in the UK.
BBRC is a public benefit investment company working with local people, companies and institutions in the West of England to catalyse regional change. Its initial investment themes include homes and communities, community asset development, low carbon economy and the environment, and employability and enterprise.
It is owned and supported by Bristol City Council, the University of Bristol, the University of West of England, Bath Spa University, Voscur, The Society of Merchant Venturers, Business West and the John Pontin Trust.
