LiveWest are not just building houses, but also creating communities. MPs have a huge role to play in challenging the stigma that continues to exist around social housing, and to champion the sector as a way to deliver on the housing targets that all parties agree are so vital to achieve.
The South West is full of ambition, and our MPs must listen to and champion the South West’s ideas within government. Matching our ambition with adequate funding and the ability to innovate according to local circumstances is key in helping the region to continue to prosper.
Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do. At the point of merging Knightstone Housing and DCH to become LiveWest, we had ambitious plans to build 15,000 new homes of all tenures over the next 10 years, substantially more than the two combined previous organisations. We have already extended this ambition to 16,000 new homes.
What we have achieved in the last year has been huge and demonstrates that housing organisations with ambition and expertise can make a real difference.
We are based in an area of high housing need as well as high house prices which makes accessing housing particularly challenging for many families.
Every affordable home built is important but to be able to make such a difference on such a scale requires collaboration across our organisation, our supply chain, contractors and local authority partners. This is already paying dividends, with a 10% increase in affordable homes completed in 2018/19 on the previous year, to 900 homes.
There is a huge appetite for change at LiveWest and we are all very much using technology to get the most out of the business.
New technology is becoming increasingly important in the building of new homes as LiveWest look at off-site manufacturing to help alleviate the region’s housing crisis.
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We have teamed up with Keepmoat Homes to develop amongst the first modular homes in the Westcountry on a site in Bridgwater. The new style of modular homes are considerably more energy efficient than the average home, saving families hundreds of pounds a year on their heating bills.
These are truly exciting times to be developing affordable housing with modular homes revolutionising the way we deliver new homes. The speed that houses can be constructed means we can deliver homes quicker.
How housing as the forgotten infrastructure investment needs to be a priority in places like Devon and Cornwall.
The need for new homes in Devon and Cornwall is acute. We have secured new opportunities since merger which will see around 1,200 new affordable homes completed in 2019/20.
Housing is integral to driving investment in infrastructure and LiveWest’s delivery of new homes will have wider benefits too.
It’s easy to forget the vital role that affordable homes contribute to economic development and prosperity, enabling local companies to recruit the workforce they need from their communities.
Housing is integral to driving investment in infrastructure, and LiveWest’s delivery of new homes will have wider benefits, too. Over the next 10 years, our planned £2bn investment in new homes will not only contribute to economic growth in the South West but sustain around 6,500 jobs in the building industry and its supply chain.
Through the Homes for the South West influencing group we are also working with other housing associations to make the case for further new housing at local and regional level, including emphasising the vital role housing plays in national and regional economic infrastructure.