1,000th new council home built in Birmingham

Council to continue affordable housing plans.

The 1,000th home for rent built through the city council’s house-building arm has been handed over to tenants.

Built through the Birmingham Municipal Housing Trust by Jessup, it is part of a £1.6 million development comprising 15 homes for affordable rent. With a further 221 rented homes on eleven sites currently under construction, Birmingham City Council plans to build over 2,000 new homes between 2015 and 2020.

The 1000th new home was officially handed over to the delighted new tenants Mrs Mifta-Ul-Jannat Chowdhury, her husband Mr Misbah Ahkanjee and family by Councillor Tahir Ali, cabinet member for development, transport and the economy. Mrs Chowdhury said she is very pleased with her new home and that her son loves his new room and the garden.

Councillor Ali said: “Through our BMHT programme the council is the biggest developer of new homes in the city, and there is no limit to our house building ambitions. It is particularly important that we are providing hundreds of new affordable homes for our citizens to rent, as well as working with the private sector to build new homes for sale.”

The Shelfield Road scheme, was built by Jessup, the award-winning Midland-based affordable homes specialists and designed by Birmingham-based architects, Walker Troup. Clive Jessup, chief executive of Jessup Build Develop said: “We are delighted to be continuing to work with Birmingham City Council to help complete their impressive new homes programme. Our policy of using local contractors and suppliers contributes to the local economy as well as creating new apprenticeships”.

The council provides new homes that are economic to run, look attractive and meet the needs of Birmingham’s citizens and are carefully designed to Building for Life Standards and are Secure by Design compliant, incorporating the latest building technologies for creating lower running costs for tenants.

The Birmingham Municipal Housing Trust Delivery Plan for 2015-2020 will deliver an estimated 2,056 homes, of which 1,456 will be new rented council homes. Through the BMHT, the city council has become the leading developer of new homes within the city, building more new homes than any other provider.