New homes officially opened in Barnstaple

6/2/2010

Magna has officially opened 11 new homes in Barnstaple.

The £1.25million scheme at Granary Court, Bear Street, is made up of six one-bedroom and five two-bedroom flats, which are owned and managed by Magna West Somerset Housing Association.

The project was funded with a £715,000 grant from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), £22,000 from the council with the balance financed by Magna.

Although originally planned for the open market, the development in Bear Street, a former storage depot, was turned into an all-affordable housing site following discussions between North Devon Council, the developer (Loosemore Developments) and Magna.

Piers Feilden, chairman of Magna West Somerset, said: “We are delighted with this development in Barnstaple where we hope to be able to build a significant number of new homes in the future. We will work hard to ensure that the residents of Granary Court have a good experience of both their new home and Magna."
Brian Moores, the council'slead member for housing, said: “This development has been a great opportunity to deliver affordable housing and meet one of the council’s key objectives - to help achieve targets for grant-aided affordable housing. It also allowed us to work with a local building firm and keep local people employed during the current economic downturn in the housing market.”

Magna liased with local police to make sure the homes were designed to be safe and secure. They are built to Sustainable Homes level 3 standard, which means they have a high level of insulation, the timber used to build them is from a sustainable source and the hot water is run by solar power.

The flats have all been let to local people.