Sefton Council’s Cabinet Members responsible for children, young people and housing, Cllrs Diane Roscoe and Daren Veidman visited Sefton’s first new Council homes for almost 20 years today. They were joined by Mandy Elliott Chief Executive of Crosby Housing Association, the Council’s appointed Housing Management Agents.
Eighteen apartments at the Buckley Hill development will be for social rent making them the first new council housing in Sefton since 2006.
A mixture of one- and two- bedroom apartments, the new council homes are due to be handed over to Sefton Council in the coming weeks. The properties are being let to local people through the Property Pool Plus housing allocations scheme. This means those in housing need and with a connection to the local area will be given priority.
Two of the properties will be let to young people who are care-experienced in Sefton.
After the visit Cllr Veidman said:
“It’s great that we will soon be able to hand the keys over to these 18, new, high-quality apartments to local people for social rent for the first time in two decades working with our appointed Housing Management Agent, Crosby Housing Association.
“Sefton Council is determined to support the provision of much-needed housing in the Brough through innovate schemes like these apartments at Buckley Hill and through our recently announced partnership with Sovini Group to build 1,000 new homes by 2030.
“It is also in line with Government’s national housing policy, which focuses on the delivery of more, affordable family homes for social rent.”
In 2023, Sefton Council made ‘care experienced’ a protected characteristic, putting it on equal footing with race and gender when it comes to fighting discrimination and ensuring equal opportunity for all. Care experienced includes all children who have had prolonged contact with the Council, whether through being fostered, placed with family members or supported in a placement.
Cllr Roscoe said:
“Sefton Council took that decision in 2023, to recognise these young people’s care experienced status, as a corporate parent.
“We wanted to ensure their voices were heard and help them deal with the challenges young people can face when leaving the care system.
“One of these challenges is finding housing so I am delighted that two of these lively new apartments are being let to those young people.”
Mandy Elliott Chief Executive of Crosby Housing Association, said:
“These apartments are great and in a fantastic spot and the quality is really good.
“The people that we’ve been showing around are absolutely delighted with them we can see many happy futures here.”
All the 63 homes for sale and rent at the Buckley Hill site have high efficiency heating systems and energy efficient design. Apartments on the ground floor have been to meet national accessibility and adaptability standards including level access showers.
All properties on the site, including the apartment blocks, have electric vehicle charging points.
The development has benefited from grant funding from the Combined Authority and from the Homes England to help support these new homes to be developed.