Case study: Blaby District Council and emh group – Leicestershire
emh group and Blaby District Council have been working together in Leicestershire since 2008 to deliver more homes to the county. Find out more about the impact the partnership has made, and how it works.
How many and what sort of homes are being delivered?
The group has developed 439 affordable homes in the district across a range of tenures since 2008.
How did the partnership get started?
The partnership was first established in 2008 as part of the stock transfer promise to Blaby District Council and the former council tenants, which led to a stock improvement and the development of the first new homes completed by emh group in the district.
The transfer agreement included the demolition and redevelopment of an estate to create 49 new homes in a tenure mix more appropriate to current needs, and the building of 25 new homes over the first five years.
The partnership in detail
The partnership is based on a mutual objective of providing good quality affordable homes to meet a range of housing needs.
Blaby District Council is small compared to other local authority areas around Leicester, but it has made a political commitment, backed by capital and strategic support, to address local housing needs.
Since the transfer, every successive chief executive at the council has actively supported the partnership, testament to its political and strategic strength in delivering on its promises to the people of Blaby district.
Formal agreements are put in place in relation to specific projects as they arise. For example, one of the latest schemes to benefit from the partnership is the development of 46 homes – 23 for affordable rent and 23 for shared ownership – at Warwick Road in the village of Littlethorpe.
The site originally had outline planning approval for 31 units based on a market housing development. However, when the opportunity became available for emh group to purchase the site from the developer and build affordable homes instead, a revised planning approval gave the go ahead for 46 homes.
In the case of the Littlethorpe development, there is a formal funding agreement in place for the capital contribution from Blaby DC, and the council has confirmed support for the scheme as part of the Homes England grant allocation process. emh homes will provide nominations to the council once the homes are completed.
Another extremely successful project has been Oak Court, an extra care scheme with 50 apartments set in a mixed tenure development in the village of Blaby. The scheme met the priority needs of both Blaby District Council and Leicestershire County Council's older person’s strategies. It was also used to pilot a reablement scheme in support of the county council’s priorities.
