The go-ahead has been given for new council houses to be built in Crookes and Manor, as part of a plan to deliver 3,100 high quality and affordable homes by 2029.
The ‘Bole Hill View’ project in Crookes will provide 36 one bedroom apartments on the site of the former old-persons care home which has been unused for the last seven years. They will be built using a ‘fabric first’ approach to maximise insulation, creating efficient ventilation systems.
The ‘Corker Bottoms’ project consists of 47 new homes in Manor, including 15 two bedroom houses, 20 three bedroom houses and 12 four bedroom houses.
Cllr Mazher Iqbal, Executive Member for City Futures, Culture, Development and Regeneration, said: “As Sheffield’s population continues to grow it’s really important that everyone has access to high-quality, affordable housing where they want to live. These new developments will see hundreds of new homes built to meet demand and provide a range of housing types to cater for different needs.”
However, some local people are concerned. Ms Haynes, 45, a resident of Crookes, said: “I would like to say this new plan is a good thing but I can’t help but worry it would turn out to be a nightmare situation. Crookes homes are clustered tightly as old buildings together already so I’m hoping this won’t make it more claustrophobic. I think in general it is a good thing to have additional housing but I am worried about extra traffic in terms of parking and cars.”
There are also concerns about the amount of vacant council houses already in the city, with one tweet reading “How many empty council houses in Sheffield? Maybe it would be cheaper to make those habitable than build new homes.”
Minesh Parekh, who’s standing to be Labour Councillor for Crookes and Crosspool, said: “It’s not an either/or, there are a lot of houses that need repairs but the way to speed that up is getting more housing built, more houses rented out to bring more money in to the council. The problem at the minute is that there is not enough money coming from central government so the government are having to look at other revenue sources of help.
“There are so many landlords with ridiculous levels of rent, I think we need to see landlords bringing all rented properties to a certain level of quality so that no one is living in inhabitable housing.”