Featured properties

The two, three and four-bedroom homes at Bradninch, Exeter have been developed on Duchy of Cornwall land in partnership with Hawkcrest Land Ltd and C G Fry & Son Ltd.

Tom Stratton, Deputy Land Steward for the Duchy of Cornwall, said:

“The Duchy of Cornwall readily supports the provision of high-quality, sustainable and affordable housing. These new properties in Bradninch have all been let to local families through The Guinness Partnership and we’re proud to have assisted in the project.”

Building sustainable homes

The new homes are heated with special pumps, which absorb heat from the outside air to create a far more efficient heating and hot water system than conventional boilers and radiators.

The exteriors are detailed with a mixture of brick, render and slate-tiled facades to give the development a traditional look and feel.

Rebecca and Chris Luke have also recently moved in. Rebecca added:

“We’re so happy here – our old house was damp and draughty and this is the first time we’ve had a proper enclosed garden for our daughter, Ava, to play in. She’s besotted with her new bedroom and our neighbours are lovely too – we’re incredibly grateful.”

Bramble Close has been built with support from the local community and offers six homes for affordable rent and two homes for shared ownership. Each home has two allocated parking spaces, a garden and a shed.

Particular attention has been given to the design and materials of the new homes to ensure they are in-keeping with the existing homes in the village. Key consideration has also been given to the energy efficiency and security of these homes, and they all meet the Code for Sustainable Homes Level 3.

“We are pleased to be able to provide this much needed affordable housing for the residents in the local area” says project delivery manager Luke Mills.

“Bramble Close is an example of a modern, high quality development that respects its rural setting and fulfills a growing need for local housing in the area.”

Mrs Horne, who has long been a campaigner of the scheme, said: “I am absolutely thrilled. Some people have a misconception about the residents of affordable housing schemes and often get the wrong idea.

“They have been carefully designed to enhance the village and most importantly, keep the village alive with the next generation of families and younger residents.”

Out of the 173 homes at Broadclose, 60% are affordable rent or shared ownership and the remainder are private market homes.

The scheme uses ‘Homezone’ principles – where road layouts are designed to strike a balance between pedestrians, cyclists and cars. Roads at Broadclose have also been carefully landscaped to encourage walking and cycling.

The short terraces, courtyards and landscaped park at the entrance of the scheme reflect the surrounding Cornwall countryside and a reduction in homes towards the edge of the scheme allows for first floor views out to the coast and countryside.

During the planning stage, over a thousand people attended a community planning weekend, with workshops to ensure young people were involved every step of the way.

Built on a former army barracks, the village is still surrounded by the original barracks’ wall and there is only one road into the village so it maintains its tranquillity.

We were selected as the registered social landlord for Caterham and currently manage 83 affordable rent and 13 shared ownership homes, which are distributed amongst the private homes – resulting in a vibrant, mixed tenure community.

A community trust was set up to manage the community facilities, which includes:

• skate park
• cricket pitch
• nature reserve
• nursing home
• community farm
• new bus service.

The vision for Cooper House was to improve the quality of homes and the local environment while creating opportunities for training and employment.

In 2013–14 the refurbishment works on the 90 flats at Cooper House have included;

• the flats being completely stripped-out and re-modelled
• replacement of windows and entrance doors
• private balcony space increased
• installation of internal wall insulation and humidistat-controlled air extraction in kitchens and bathrooms
• new roof coverings and insulation
• improved drainage
• a new main entrance lobby with platform lift.

“I used to be ashamed of the building, just from the outside it looked a bit run down. Now I feel proud of welcoming people to come and visit my flat and the building.”

Gemma, Cooper House resident

The main priorities for the project were to ensure customers faced as little disturbance as possible and to guarantee their ideas and concerns were heard every step of the way. Residents even had a say in how their kitchens and bathrooms would look, right down to the design of the kitchen sink.

The development has also given two apprentice plumbers, Josh and Tom, the opportunity to work on a large site and gain experiences they haven’t had in their apprenticeships so far.

End of the line? Gosport’s decline

Second World War bombing severely damaged the station, and in 1941 incendiary bombs destroyed almost the entire passenger side, including the enormous wooden roof. At the end of the war, the station was low on the list of priorities for repair and Gosport’s passenger service came to an end in June 1953.

The station was finally closed in 1969 as part of the ‘Beeching cuts’; the infamous reduction and restructure of the British railway network. By 1970 the station was deserted and the rail tracks lifted.

Hampshire County Council purchased the site for development in 1973. Over the next 20 years various developments were considered, but none came to fruition.

A light at the end of the tunnel

In 2006 Re-Format Architects produced what would become an award-winning design for the restoration and conversion of Gosport.

We purchased the site for £1 and quickly began sub-contracting a number of local companies and tradespeople to complete the development, including four apprentices. After researching the iconic design of the station we replicated the timber sash windows and the stucco render used on the original buildings.

At a cost of £5.5 million the development was ready for people to move in in late 2010. The cost was funded by Guinness with the help of a grant from the Homes and Community Agency and English Heritage along with support from Gosport Borough Council. There are 35 homes, comprising apartments, houses and maisonettes for rent and shared ownership, as well as a community room and three business units.

The surplus from sales, like Grand Regent Tower, are all invested back into building homes for people in housing need.

A canalside development in the East End, Grand Regent Tower comprises of 81 contemporary apartments with views across the City and Canary Wharf.

It takes its name from Regent’s Canal which flows alongside the apartments and the Grand Union Canal – the main watercourse connecting London and Birmingham.

The new apartments blend high-specification detail with cutting-edge style and are aimed at young professionals living in Bethnal Green, one of London’s buzziest neighbourhoods.

We have also brought the remaining three blocks, which will be offered for market rent when the development is complete.

The scheme, which provides 77 affordable homes of mixed tenure, helped to meet a local housing need and enabled people to stay in the village they grew up in.

The homes were designed to fit in with the traditional style of the village, with locally sourced materials wherever possible, including stone from a local quarry.

Helliers Lane has dramatically improved the lives of local people. Resident Carol Postings, said “I’m retired and my husband had medical problems, so we were desperate to find somewhere. We were on the housing list and when this came up we went to every meeting held about it. At our age on state pensions it’s just amazing to be here.”

All 77 homes have been built to Level 3 of the Code for Sustainable Homes and they are at least 25% more energy efficient than the minimum design standards required.

The majority of the properties have also been built with the changing needs of residents in mind – including wheelchair accessible corridors, the ability to install downstairs showers and with removable panels for floor platform lifts to be installed.

Completed in March 2012, Jubilee Close provides 13 houses for rent and 12 for shared ownership. All of the houses were allocated to people from the local area.

The scheme cost £3.4 million, including a Homes and Communities Agency grant funding of £1 million. The scheme was the runner up in the Michelmores and Western Morning News Property Awards 2013 for Residential Project of the Year (40 units and under).

Mixed tenure rural exception schemes

Ensuring that the next generation of families have somewhere to live is a key part of our commitment to providing affordable housing and this is just as essential in small rural areas as it is in big towns and cities.

Jubilee Court was built as a mixed tenure rural exceptions scheme. This means it takes advantage of a plot of land on the edge of a country town to build a smaller development in keeping with the area. It is also retained for people who are current or former residents, or who have a family or employment connection to the area.

Sustaining rural towns is an ongoing challenge and we are dedicated to building schemes like Jubilee Close to keep rural communities alive.

“It is such a lovely space for people to live in and the quality of the finish on all the buildings is really good” said ward councillor, Sue Nicholas.

“It means that people can afford homes closer to their families in the communities and the developer has involved local companies in maintenance and cleaning so that it is benefiting the community as a whole.”

Many of the houses we acquired at Lansdown had been overcrowded, badly constructed, and in poor condition. Even in this state, the tenants were concerned that any improvement we made to the properties would result in rising rents – so the work was met with some objections at first. Some tenants moved out and squatters moved in, causing further damage to the properties. Without improvements the beautiful Regency terrace would have fallen further into disrepair.

By 1981 we had converted the twenty-three homes in the crescent that we had purchased and refurbished them to provide 132 self-contained flats and maisonettes for social rent. Many of the private owners of the remaining buildings began to make their own improvements as Cheltenham Council declared Lansdown a special project area and gave it a Grade II listing.

Two of the properties  we had acquired at the end of the crescent – No.1 and No.2  – were too damaged to refurbish. So instead we rebuilt the properties so that they fitted the architectural style of the surrounding properties, whilst making them suitably flexible for the elderly residents that would be housed there. This was achieved by imitating the facades of the surrounding buildings, while constructing 21 flats behind them with a new layout and modern storey heights.

The old building, which contained the Stockport dungeons and medieval town walls, has been carefully refurbished to provide 20 new affordable rent flats.

18 of the flats centre around courtyards accessed by gated passageways, with each flat uniquely designed to suit its location within the existing building.

The scheme has received the following awards:

• MSA Awards 2006: Joint winner of Conservation and Reuse
• ODPM Housing Design Awards 2006
• CABE BfL Award 2006: Silver Standard
• SMBC Conservation and Design Awards 2006: Best Mixed Use Conversion
• MEN: Winner of the Best Conversion category

Completed in 2011, our development at Potterspury, Northamptonshire, consists of 50 houses, including 18 affordable homes built by Francis Jackson Homes and managed by Guinness.

Extensive consultations took place with Potterspury Parish Council and South Northamptonshire Council in order to create a sensitive development at this important gateway to the village. Design criteria included the retention of stone walls, use of locally sourced building materials, and financial contributions towards local education, amenity and infrastructure.

We take our responsibility towards the environment very seriously, and all the properties in Potterspury have attained Level 3 of the Code of Sustainable Homes.

We try to foster community spirit in all our developments, and in 2012 residents at Potterspury celebrated the one-year anniversary of moving into their homes. Local resident Lorraine Russell, who organised the first celebration, said, “We are fortunate that we live in a lovely area with so much community spirit.” They have kept up the tradition ever since.

In 2013, Potterspury reached the shortlist of the “Best Rural Innovation” category at the National Housing Awards.

The vision was to create an urban village that reflected the traditional Dorset architecture, while interspersing affordable, social and shared ownership homes amongst privately owned properties.

Since our first homes were handed over in 1994, we have established a close working relationship with The Duchy of Cornwall and completed our 250th home in the village.

A huge emphasis has been placed on sustainability at Poundbury, with on-site production of hot water, locally generated electricity, regular electric bus services to Dorchester and the UK’s first commercial biomethane to grid plant, generating enough gas to flow to 56,000 houses in the mid-summer.

By the end of 2016 we will manage 195 social rent, 28 shared ownership and 34 affordable rent homes at Poundbury.

The scheme offers supported living to 20 residents, helping them develop skills that will enable them to live independently.

In December 2015 an art stone was installed at the scheme to mark 125-years of Guinness. Allan Ramsay, Director of Investment and Regeneration at The Guinness Partnership, said:

“Celebrating our 125th anniversary is an ideal time to reflect on our commitment to providing quality affordable homes to those who need them most. We’re incredibly proud to be installing our first art stone at Sevenairs Road to commemorate this milestone and round off such a monumental year, and we look forward to starting on brand new developments in 2016 and beyond.”

In 2010 we took on a stock transfer of 141 homes and began a £5.5million refurbishment programme to improve and modernise the 1960’s homes. This added to the 175 homes that we already owned on the estate. We also manage 556 properties there for Manchester Council.

Since completing the refurbishment we’ve built an additional 41 energy-efficient homes, all of which incorporate solar panels and the facility for rainwater harvesting.

As part of our ongoing commitment to the regeneration of West Gorton, we set aside £50,000 to benefit the community and to improve the lives of individual residents. The fund has helped local schools and cafes by providing much needed equipment, day trips, residential events, and training sessions.

During construction we also worked with the wider community in West Gorton by enabling a local construction college to use one of our units as a live training base for their students.