First look at £7m development in South Tyneside

Four Housing Group has released the first images of how the £7m development in Hebburn, South Tyneside, will look when completed.

The development at School Street will provide 36 homes available for social rent, and 35 new homes for sale under shared ownership or rent to home-buy. This will give local people, especially first time buyers, a low cost way to get on the property ladder. The purchaser can initially buy as little as 25 percent of the property and pay rent on the remainder of the home, which can often make it easier to secure a mortgage.

Four Housing Group, based in Durham, will own and manage the homes, which have received £3million in funding from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA).

The development will be a welcome addition to the land, which has lain empty since the 1980s, and will include allotments, green walkways and a wildflower meadow.

Four Housing Group chief executive Martin Knowles grew up in Hebburn and still lives in the South Tyneside borough. He said of the development, “As someone from the area seeing this housing being built is a real achievement.

“Locals all know about the history of the land, which played host to a notorious estate in the 1950s, and since then has been virtually derelict. We’ve been waiting to announce how the new homes will look and feel, and they will be an iconic development, both on a regional and national scale.

“I for one am very proud to see these homes being built as I know personally how much they will mean for local people of Hebburn.”

Dunelm Property Services has been engaged by Four Housing Group to develop the site, and now the remedial work is complete the full build will begin, with expected completion in summer 2012.