Scheme That Sees People Helping to Build Their Own Homes Wins Two National Awards
A housing development that sees local people working on their future homes in return for a mortgage deposit reduction has won two more prestigious awards.
St William’s in Wigan by Prima Group and Housing People Building Communities (HPBC) won the Most Innovative Affordable Housing Project and Most Innovative Partnership categories at the Building Innovation Awards.
Liverpool RC Archdiocese gifted St William’s Church and Presbytery plus adjacent land to HPBC, which Prima Group then paid for and included in its appraisal.
In total, 13 apartments/duplexes are being created by refurbishing existing buildings and 14 new homes built, which has transformed a historic but disused landmark on a derelict brownfield site into a thriving asset for the local community.
Not only is the project helping people get on the property ladder, but with residents, known as home partners, working 500 hours on the new development in return for a £10,000 reduction in their mortgage deposit, it is building strong community relations from the outset.
Home partners carried out on-site labour, painting, decorating and landscaping, as well as providing administration, marketing and IT support tasks. To ensure home-partners were well rewarded, Prima Group and HPBC gave a sweat equity rate of £20 per hour (£10,000 for 500 hours) which is almost double the National Living Wage.
The double at the Building Innovation Awards follows St William’s scooping the Affordable Housing Development (up to £10m) category of the Northern Housing Awards earlier this year.
Prima Group Chief Executive, John Ghader, said: “It is fantastic validation that more judges have recognised what we are achieving at St William’s in giving local people the chance to help themselves to make homes and a community.
“There is a danger new housing schemes can be quite soulless places with people living close by but not knowing each other and not interacting.
“Our sweat equity model changes this completely.
“It sees people working shoulder-to-shoulder to help build the homes they will live in and also means people who would otherwise not be able to afford a mortgage can get on the property ladder.”
To help the scheme in the Ince area of Wigan foster a local neighbourhood feel, the homes were offered to local people with everyone moving in living within four miles of the site and 70% residing within one mile.
All home-partners work in Wigan, with 90% employed in Ince.
To involve the local community, volunteering and training opportunities were given to Wigan and Leigh College students so they could experience working on-site while an outdoor seating area for St William’s Catholic Primary School was created.
