Affordable Housing

Building community

Our vision is to make Selly Oak more diverse and attractive to families. Our proposal would provide 10 energy efficient homes targeted, as far as is legally possible, at local families, key workers and recent graduates who want to remain in the area. Our not-for-profit status means these homes will be rented to families at below market rates while being built to a high standard. We aim to build a long term community, rather than just a cluster of houses, and our status as a Community Benefit Society will ensure that the houses remain under our ownership and cannot be sold to student landlords.

We aim to

Provide badly needed affordable housing for rent.
Regenerate a site designated by the council as needing development.
Bring families into the area and build community
Invest in the social needs of the area.

The site

Located behind Aldi just off the Bristol Rd the Bournbrook Recreation ground is poorly maintained and has been an eyesore for many years. Graffitied, with drinking and drug use common it has now fallen into disrepair and the Council, unable to maintain it, have decided it would be suitable for housing or student accommodation.

Public open space

Open spaces are key to building communities and our proposal will retain an area of public open space on the Bristol Rd as well as communal areas within the development itself.

The public open space could provide a community garden / orchard, children's play area, or multi-use games area. We might also consider a graffiti wall to retain the artistic elements of the current park. It may be possible to include more than one of these features. Noise levels from this area must be compatible with the housing development and nearby houses on the Bristol Rd. We have conducted a full noise survey to assess the possibilities.

Proposal

Our housing project has been carefully designed to meet the many challenges of this site. We will retaining as many of the current trees as possible while using new planting to reduce noise. We will locate the housing towards the north of the site - linking to George Rd - with communal gardens towards the south.

We will provide 10 family homes with a mixture of formats including maisonettes and houses. These will be built to high standards of energy efficiency and provided with low cost, energy efficient, heating options. Our aim is to provide homes that are both affordable to rent and heat.

Recognising that modern family life often requires car use, and the congestion on local streets, we will provide off-street parking for every home along with cycle storage.

Affordable Housing - To be developed by Selly Oak CDT
Re-oriented Aldi store - To be developed by Aldi.
Retained public open space - To be developed by Aldi
Existing electricity sub-station

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