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Affordable, green homes for locals in Kent village |
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12 Jun 2015, 4:25 PM
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Leading social landlord West Kent Housing Association prides itself on building communities as well as homes and believes it has achieved just that with its newest development of energy efficient homes at Kenardington, just outside Ashford.
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The five spacious, energy-efficient homes at Lorden Cottages are only available to people who are considered to be in housing need and who can prove a local connection to Kenardington – and that was great news for mum Laken Thompson.
The scheme has allowed Laken to move from rented accommodation in Ashford back to a home in the village she loves and where she can be close to her family and bring her son Johnny up in a close-knit village environment.
While living in in Ashford she used to return every week to see her grandfather. Now he simply walks through the village to visit her in her smart new, soar panel-powered home.
Laken is delighted to be back and loves the two-bedroomed home she shares with partner Kyle Lincoln and two year-old Johnny. She was also full of praise for West Kent, pointing out: “I couldn’t ask for anything more. The house is spacious and well planned, the garden is a nice size and West Kent is a fantastic landlord.
“Above all, it’s great to be back in the village.”
West Kent, based in Sevenoaks but with homes across the county, built the eco-friendly homes on a ‘rural exception site’ after a housing needs survey carried out by the parish council in partnership with Ashford Borough Council demonstrated a need for affordable homes for local people.
West Kent stepped in with a workable scheme for the site at Kenardington when other developers were unable to meet the criteria – and for Neighbourhood Housing Officer Ann Jones the thinking behind the scheme makes her job much easier.
“My role is to help create a feeling of community amongst our tenants,” she began, “and that’s so much easier when the people living in our new homes already have something in common – in this case the fact that they grew up here or have family living locally.”
The parish and borough councils worked closely with rural housing enabler Tessa O’Sullivan, from Action with Communities in Rural Kent, to turn the scheme from a dream into a reality.
Tessa works with parishes to provide evidence to satisfy local planners – in this case from Ashford – that there is enough local need to justify a planning approval that would not be given for ordinary homes. She then helps find a suitable site, which has to be sold for less than housing land would ordinarily fetch.
Laken, whose parents were married in the parish church, opened her home to representatives from West Kent and the other agencies that made her new life possible at a celebration event for the new development at the beginning of June.
Guests included West Kent development manager Fraser Neasham, who explained: “It can be difficult for people who grew up in a village and who have family, friends and possibly even a job in the village, to find a home there, and that’s the problem these ‘rural exception sites’ are designed to solve.”
Parish Council Chairman Keith Ashby, who was also at the launch event, said he was delighted with the scheme, which allowed local young people to help create a thriving community.
West Kent Chief Executive Frank Czarnowski said Kent was a rural county without enough rural homes and said Lorden Cottages was “a great scheme that will help to redress that balance”.
He agreed with Ann Jones that the nature of the scheme was good news for community living, pointing out that bricks and mortar was simply “a means to an end”.
He added: “The people at Lorden Cottages already have a sense of community. Laken was born here, she has a cousin next door and all the tenants already have a sense of belonging. This is a lovely scheme and one I hope the village can feel proud of.”
Also at the launch was Ashford Council’s housing portfolio holder Cllr Paul Clokie, who described it as “a great scheme that has been well finished and gives the tenants good living space”.
He added: ”If villages don’t have new homes and new people to support local businesses and services they die. This is the kind of initiative that keeps villages alive and thriving.”
The homes are designed to be relatively cheap to run as they include a range of high-tech, energy-efficient equipment including air-source heating and solar PV panels. They exceed building regulation standards for thermal insulation.
Credits:: Malcolm Triggs - 24dash.com photo - D Skinner
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