Building Briefs – November 4th

• Urban Union hails Excellence in Regeneration win at CIH awards

The £140 million revitalisation project at Laurieston Living was commended for its informed design process, which took into consideration financial, cultural, social and environmental factors of the local area.

The organisation’s five-year arts strategy for Laurieston Living, created with WAVEParticle, aims to explore and connect the development to the rich history of the Gorbals, its people, places, interests, inspirations and aspirations.

Growing each year since its inception, this year’s CIH Excellence Awards received a record number of entries with over 100 projects, teams and individuals applying over 18 award categories.

Over 400 guests from across Scotland’s housing sector gathered at Glasgow’s Radisson Blu on Friday 23 October for the awards.

Laurieston Living is currently delivering its second phase, which will see 173 houses and apartments constructed. Over 63 homes have already been handed over to their new owners. The development opened its new showhome last month.

• Amazon takes four acres at Queensferry One

Scarborough Muir Group has announced that Amazon has agreed a new lease on four acres of land for use as a lorry parking facility at the Queensferry One development at Rosyth.

The £250 million Queensferry One development covers 120 acres occupying a south-facing waterfront location. 

The development will integrate 800,000 sq ft of industrial, manufacturing and logistics warehouses; 50,000 sq ft for roadside type uses (20,000 sq ft of retail and a 120-bed hotel, all of which reflect the Local Development Plan (FIFEplan). Flexible opportunities exist from land sales to design and build on a lease or freehold basis.

• Melrose 3G community sports pitch officially opened

Hundreds of junior and senior sportspeople have helped mark the official opening of the new Melrose 3G community sports pitch.

The new pitch at the Greenyards was opened by Doddie Weir on Saturday 2 November as part of a full day of sport which included junior football, girls rugby, a Southern Knights training session and two Melrose Rugby’s senior XV games. 

The £1 million pitch will provide an all year round playing surface and a variety of community benefits to local sports clubs and schools.

The project has been led by Melrose Rugby and Scottish Borders Council (SBC), with support from Scottish Rugby and charity Live Borders. It includes new floodlighting and a spectator walkway, and is fully expected to result in a considerable increase in sports participation at all levels.

• GHA celebrates 3000th home milestone

Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) has celebrated the completion of its 3000th home.

Susan Aitken, leader of Glasgow City Council, and GHA chair Bernadette Hewitt met with tenants on a visit to Gallowgate where the milestone home was built to mark the occasion and toast the regeneration of Glasgow’s communities.

The council leader heard how the city-wide new-build programme is transforming communities, providing families with quality, affordable housing and creating jobs and training for local people.

GHA’s £430 million new-build programme, supported by Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council, has seen communities regenerated with modern, energy-efficient housing for people right across the city. A total of 47 projects have been delivered so far with hundreds more homes planned by GHA in the next five years.

GHA’s parent company, Wheatley Group, encourages contractors to maximise jobs and training opportunities for local people. In total the GHA new-build programme has supported 228 jobs, 126 apprenticeships and 128 training or work placements. 

The £17m phase two Gallowgate development is in one of the eight areas in Glasgow earmarked as a priority for regeneration, known as Transformational Regeneration Areas (TRAs). Work on these priority areas is overseen by Transforming Communities: Glasgow (TC:G) a partnership between, Scottish Government, Glasgow City Council and GHA.

The 143 homes being built in phase two include 113 for social rent, 26 for mid-market rent and four for shared equity. 14 homes are designed for wheelchair users. Phase one of the Gallowgate project saw 62 homes built-in 2013.

GHA is currently building 631 homes on nine sites in the city, the largest of which is the development at Gallowgate. The scale of the programme has seen Wheatley Group named the UK’s biggest developer of social housing in the UK for the past three years (Inside Housing 2017, 2018 and 2019).

CCG built the phase two homes in Gallowgate.