Tag Archives: Housing

Much needed new homes for Filwood Broadway

Context setting

Councillor Tom Renhard, smiling, with trees in the background.
Today’s guest blog is from Councillor Tom Renhard, Cabinet Member for Housing Delivery and Homes

In a recent blog, I wrote about Bristol’s housing crisis and the need to improve housing accessibility for everyone across the city. House prices are almost nine times the average salary, making Bristol the most expensive Core City to afford a house. The city urgently needs the delivery of new affordable homes to tackle this and achieve thriving and safe communities.

Launching The Living Rent Commission showcases our commitment towards achieving fairness for all. The commission aims to improve rent affordability in the private rented sector. By empowering tenants’ rights to make recommendations on possible rent stabilisation powers, and ultimately working with Westminster on policy development to reform the private rented sector in Bristol. We’ve worked with representatives across the housing sector, including renters through our Bristol renters survey and Renters’ Summit earlier this year. This provided us with a deeper understanding of the issues facing residents who rent and helps us look for solutions to tackle this.

As the city’s biggest social housing landlord, and its biggest landowner, we recognise the role we must play in meeting this housing need. We must build more houses to meet the housing demand. We are committed to building 2,000 homes each year, with 1,000 being affordable. Last year we beat this target as 2,563 homes were built. 90% of these new homes were built on previously developed land. These sites are often challenging but are an opportunity to recognise and provide wider community regeneration aspirations as well as provide much needed affordable housing.

Demolition job

Next week will mark the start of demolition works at 18 – 20 Filwood Broadway, a former cinema and bingo hall which has not been in use for decades. Approval to demolish the building was given in June 2019 following a planning application for 30 affordable homes with community and commercial space on the site.

We are grateful to residents who shared their views in the public consultation in December 2019 which looked through the draft design options. A second round of public consultation is now closed. The first phase of this work included removing asbestos on site and preparing the required structural works.

The planning application is for the creation of 30 dwellings comprising of ten one-bedroom units, eleven two-bedroom units, and nine three-bedroom units. In total there will be 17 flats and 13 houses, connected to a communal ground source heat pump system. This development will deliver as much social rent accommodation as possible, supported by an element of shared ownership housing where necessary to make the scheme viable.

We know that successful placemaking is key to the long-term success of our high streets and local centres – harnessing continued investment in new homes, to repair and reinvigorate existing neighbourhoods, strengthening physical connections between areas, creating vibrant, resilient and healthy communities. This is why the application proposes 595 square metres of flexible community and commercial floor space for shops, cafes, and the possible relocation of the public library.

The development will also include a new public space facing onto the Broadway and new trees and planting. There will be vehicle access from both Filwood Broadway and Barnstaple Road, along the new residential street. Pedestrian and cycle access will only be available from Hartcliffe Road. This work will help support a thriving community, ensuring that for local trips, walking and cycling become the most convenient option, and for trips further afield, public transport becomes a viable option. Public and private spaces will be clearly defined, accessible, well managed and safe.

The application for this was submitted in July this year and we expect a decision in the coming months. If planning permission is granted, we expect construction to commence in February 2024. More details about this regeneration work can be found on our website.

Note: An earlier version of this blog contained a typo regarding the date which this building fell into disrepair.

Building Bristol – our vision for growing construction skills and employment

Councillor Asher Craig and Tom Renhard, smile in a group of Building Bristol employees.
Today’s blog is from Councillors Asher Craig, Deputy Mayor with responsibility for Children’s Services, Education and Equalities and Tom Renhard, Cabinet Member for Housing Delivery and Homes – seen on the far left and centre of the picture

Bristol’s construction industry is booming, cranes are on the horizon. We are responding to the growing needs of our city, enabling new developments, offering much needed accommodation, health facilities, hospitality sites, education facilities, and workspaces. Our planning department reviews and approves over 100 major applications a year.

Without a doubt, we need the homes, schools, hotels, entertainment, and health facilities. But it is not just the finished product that matters. What our city also needs is skills development, training, and employment opportunities and we recognise that local developments and their associated construction projects can offer these opportunities. That is why we are now requiring that all major planning applications include an Employment and Skills Plan (ESP) for the construction phase and, where appropriate, the end use phase. While this might seem like an unnecessary extra step, there is huge value in these requirements. And contractors and developers are not on their own to meet the obligations. We have launched Building Bristol, a support service for the industry to guide developers and contractors every step of the way, helping put together and evaluate the ESPs.

Why the change, some might ask. We recognise that there are many opportunities presented by construction developments in our city during the build and the end user phase. These opportunities can greatly improve local employment, training and skills offers and, therefore, it is important that all of those involved in shaping our city play their part in maximising such employment opportunities for local people. Through Building Bristol, we can also connect applicants and developers with a wide range of services to help meet the agreed targets. All this means that there are huge benefits for our city’s workforce.

A Building Bristol employee smiles with a window behind him. His hat has the Building Bristol logo.

And vitally, we want to make sure the changed requirements are of benefit to the construction trade too. We have recently appointed John Boughton, Regional Managing Director for Wales and the South West of Bouygues UK, as the Chair of Building Bristol Board. John’s expertise, as the lead of the board’s key partners which include business, education, training, employment support, voluntary sector, trade unions and construction support, will help us make sure that we are further helping the construction industry.

So what does it mean in practice? Our Building Bristol Coordinator is on hand to support contractors, developers and end employers with developing their Employment and Skills Plans and delivering their agreed targets. By working with all major developments, there are also opportunities for shared events and campaigns to boost local recruitment.

In our city, construction is a career choice for plenty of young people already. We run our own On Site construction apprenticeship scheme which supports innovative apprenticeship and work-based learning programmes. We are proud to say over the last 25 years the programme has been running, it has delivered 2,500 apprenticeships. In Bristol, there is also our new £9 million state-of-the-art City of Bristol College Advanced Construction Skills Centre for students aspiring to a career in construction, which we helped secure the funding for. But we would like to go further. Building Bristol aspires to change the perception of careers in construction, to open up more opportunities for young people, women and those with barriers to employment, and to help close the skills shortage within the construction industry. We hope the scheme will complement the work we are already doing and further aid us in making construction a more attractive and attainable career for people in Bristol.

Two Building Bristol employees wearing High visibility jackets look out the window. The Building Bristol logo sits on their backs.

Our commitment to support the construction industry is continuous.  Previously, we had signed a Unite Construction Charter committing to working with Unite in order to achieve the highest standards in respect of direct employment status, health & safety, standards of work, apprenticeship training and the implementation of appropriate nationally agreed terms and conditions of employment.

The launch of Building Bristol isn’t the first time we have strived for local people to experience the wider benefit from new construction developments. For example, Goram Homes in partnership with Bristol City Council, will be launching a Skills Academy for its One Lockleaze development in the early part of next year, an innovative training programme designed to create opportunities for local people to gain work experience and vocational qualifications.

This is just the start of the process, and we’ll be sharing stories of partners and their experience with Building Bristol.  For now, more information about the service is available here: Building Bristol

Building a better Bristol

Bristol is a rapidly growing city. One of the fastest growing areas in England and Wales, our population has grown by 10% in the last decade. We need to work together to make sure that Bristol grows well, with local communities benefiting from the change happening on their doorstep. Regeneration will bring city-wide benefits so that everyone can thrive.

To ensure these changes are as positive as possible, we have a vision to create vibrant communities with sustainable, inclusive economic growth. Quality affordable homes and job opportunities will be in locations where we can have reliable, frequent public transport connections and be within walking and cycling routes.

As I shared at last month’s State of the City Address, we are elected to shape the city and the outcomes we want for it. The changes coming for Bristol cannot be left to the chances of a developer aligning with an out-of-date Local Plan and a quasi-judicial process. So, we work to push the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, affordability targets, mixed tenures, modern methods of construction, and active frontages. We want to make sure the changes happen as coherently as possible. It’s essential we work in partnership with landowners, developers, and local communities, to create development frameworks which will set out the principles that will guide and inform how change will take place in an area.  

A map of Bristol with highlighted areas showing regeneration projects across the city. Western Harbour is highlighted pink, Bedminster Green is highlighted green, Southmead is blue, City Centre is purple, Whitehouse Street is deep blue, Frome Gateway is orange and Temple Quarter is red.

Bristol’s transformation is already in progress. Our regeneration programme stretches from Bedminster to Temple Meads, St Judes’s to Broadmead, and includes Western Harbour, Hengrove, and Southmead. This can seem overwhelming, especially after decades of under-delivery by the Council, but we have to recognise the changes are a key part of delivering much needed housing, transport infrastructure, and low carbon energy systems. We have to work with existing communities to manage Bristol’s inevitable growth and plan for it.

We need to deliver thousands of new homes by 2036 to match continuing population growth. We also need to invest in transport networks and infrastructure so people can work and learn. We all need to have access to green spaces, and community spaces. What’s more, we need to do this in a way that will help us be a carbon neutral and climate resilient city by 2030 while also improving wildlife and ecology. We have ambitious plans to support these goals.

We’re developing the District Heat Network, connecting energy users across Bristol to a ready supply of affordable, low-carbon heating. The District Heat Network includes the installation of new energy centres at Whitehouse Street, Frome Gateway, and the City Centre. Our Heat Hierarchy will be adopted by every developer when new housing projects are confirmed, energy efficient homes will make residents use of heat more efficient, lowering the cost.

The rivers Frome, Avon, and Malago run through some of the regeneration areas, but in many parts the Frome and Malago are hidden or unloved. Working alongside developers and landowners we have the opportunity to recover and restore these precious habitats. In Bedminster Green, the River Malago will be ‘daylighted’, uncovered from underground tunnels and its natural features restored. Restoring the river brings great benefits; improved flood resilience and biodiversity throughout the river’s course and new green public spaces for people to enjoy. 

We’re focusing on keeping the roots and history of Bedminster and making sure the heritage of industrial space works in harmony with the need for housing, jobs, and our response to the climate emergency to create a modern, thriving neighbourhood. 

We are creating new communities and revitalising Hengrove, with 1,435 new homes being built at Hengrove Park, 50% of these will be affordable. This means more homes for households who cannot afford to pay market rents or buy homes at market value.

To revitalise the local economy and help businesses on East Street, we are making sure that 5,000 residents in new housing in Bedminster Green and Whitehouse Street have easy access to shops with new walking, cycling and public transport routes. A few minutes more travelling will bring residents to the city centre and beyond.

We’re to create a network of low-carbon transport routes, which will make car-free travel in Bedminster and the surrounding areas easier and excellent public transport links connecting people to Temple Quarter. In June, we secured £95 million to kickstart its first phase of delivery around Temple Meads station. 

Our ambition for the Frome Gateway area, located in St Jude’s to the east of the city centre, is for an exemplar neighbourhood. We want it to be recognised for its unique identity, ability to support healthy sustainable communities, and high-quality and sustainable design. Regeneration there, as across Bristol, must include our commitment to retaining a range of employment to help ensure a diverse and growing economy. 

We know the community is strong and but also faces some of the highest levels of socio-economic deprivation in the city. Regeneration will need to provide meaningful opportunities to improve quality of life for the local community and access to opportunity. St Jude’s is also more vulnerable than other parts of the city to flood risk and heat wave caused by climate change and responding to this is a key priority. Our Bristol Avon Flood Strategy, in cooperation with the Environment Agency and developers, will deliver flood defences that work for Bristol: better protecting homes and businesses near our city’s rivers.

Change at Frome Gateway is not driven solely by Bristol City Council. We have to work with the network of landowners, existing businesses, community groups and cultural facilities. We’ve also partnered with South Gloucestershire Council, Wessex Water, and the Environment Agency secure funding to deliver the River Frome restoration project. 

In a similar way, the Council’s city centre team is working with businesses and other stakeholder groups to revitalise the city centre through the City Centre Development and Delivery Plan’. They told us what was important to them now and in the future looking at the centre’s character, economy, housing, movement, streets, parks, green spaces, and climate change, and our design proposals will focus on this guided by the ‘Citizens Brief’.

By planning and co-ordinating development we’ll able to think strategically about how a city impacted by the pandemic can recover and thrive with a modern, vibrant, commercial centre everyone can access.

Bristol will always be changing and growing in different ways, and we have to adapt and seize the opportunities this will bring us. By having a clear vision of the future we want, with sustainable and inclusive growth at its heart, we can build it together.

Want to know more?

Details about all the regeneration projects can be found on their websites.  

All our regeneration work is in service of the Bristol Local Plan, which Cllr Nicola Beech, who has responsibility for Strategic Planning, Resilience and Floods, talked about recently. 

We will soon be asking what people think of draft Whitehouse Street framework when the consultation opens on 17th November.

If you would like to help us shape these projects, or receive regular updates on project developments and engagement opportunities, please take a look at the websites and sign up to our mailing lists: 

Bedminster Green

Whitehouse Street

Frome Gateway

City Centre

Temple Quarter

Western Harbour

Southmead 

Launching a Living Rent Commission

Todays blog by Cllr Tom Renhard, Cabinet Member for Housing Delivery and Homes and Labour Councillor for Horfield

In Bristol we face a housing crisis.

We have almost 18,000 households (and growing) on our waiting list for social housing, along with over 1,100 households in temporary accommodation. The cost of renting in this city is one key cause alongside the lack of security that renters have in the private rented sector.

Over the past decade the cost of renting in the city grew by 52%, whilst wages only increased by 24% over the same period and current levels of inflation are far outstripping any growth in income. The spiralling costs mean housing is becoming increasingly unaffordable, pushing many further away from their place of work, family, and support networks, impacting across sectors and low and middle income households

Cllr Tom Renhard, end revenge evictions

This is why we have launched a Living Rent Commission.

We are bringing the best, partnership focused organisations together to explore the issues facing renters.

The principle aims of the commission are to:

  • Improve affordability of the private rented sector
  • Understand the impact of regulation on rent prices including on housing quality and maintenance
  • Identifying the most effective rent controls
  • Consider what other powers are required
  • Consider how to empower tenants’ rights

The powers needed to ensure the rental market is accessible and works for all do not exist. The commission will make recommendations on possible rent stabilisation powers. The powers come from government and so we will work with Westminster on policy development to reform the private rented sector, enabling Bristol to become a Living Rent City.

While we will focus on delivering change for the tens of thousands of renters in Bristol, we are also making links with other urban areas and could see this work pave the way for rent reform that benefits millions across the country. This is our time to make the case for a Living Rent, and it has never been more important given the current cost of living crisis with no immediate end in sight.

We have a track record of supporting action to improve conditions for renters. Whether that be lobbying for the end to no fault evictions, that are a huge driver of homelessness in our city, or campaigning to bring in the eviction ban during the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been pushing for renter reform for some time.

With cross party support, I wrote to the Secretary of State setting out the city’s support for the Renters Reform Coalition proposals for change. We will lobby to ensure these issues remain on the agenda. I will continue to fight for better protection for renters and ensure they are not driven out of Bristol.

220509-Cllr-Renhard-to-SoS-Michael-GoveDownload

So how can people contribute to the work of the Living Rent Commission?

We will be ensuring a wide range of people have the opportunity to be heard, including the lived experience of what it is like on the ground. I am grateful to the organisations who are prepared to work together on the Advisory Board and other organisations who will have plenty of opportunity to shape the work.

Get involved, so Bristol can have a clear voice on this – we need a Living Rent that is manageable for people and works for Bristol.   

Want to know more? Get in touch by emailing: city.office@bristol.gov.uk

Membership of Living Rent Commission Advisory Board as at 26/07/22:

  • Fair Renting Campaign
  • Generation Rent
  • ARLA
  • ALL Wessex
  • Shelter
  • Bristol Older People’s Forum
  • Ashley Community Housing
  • Black South West Network
  • UWE Student’s Union
  • UOB Student’s Union
  • We Can Make
  • Trowers and Hamlins
  • Brighter Places

Giant plans for affordable housing delivery

Today’s blog is from Councillor Tom Renhard, Cabinet Member for Housing Delivery and Homes and Labour Councillor for Horfield

Goram and Vincent were the giants of legend who created Bristol and some of its features, such as the Avon Gorge. They were the inspiration for the name of our Council owned housing company – Goram Homes – and now we are helping them to change the face of Bristol again.

This week at Cabinet, we approved the Goram Homes pipeline of council-owned sites to be developed by Goram and its partners. These sites will now be brought forward for new market rate and affordable homes.

There’s been a lot of talk recently about the need for new homes in Bristol, particularly affordable homes, and what the council and its partners are doing about it. We recently approved ambitious proposals to accelerate affordable housing delivery in Bristol to deliver 1,000 affordable homes each year from 2024. Goram Homes and their pipeline are going to play a major role in us hitting this target.

Because the land in the pipeline is council-owned, we have a greater opportunity to build the kind of homes that are needed in the city. Through the partnership model that Goram uses, we can also build developments at a faster pace, using new approaches like Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) to deliver homes that are more sustainable than those made with traditional building methods.

These aspirations are reflected in Goram’s updated pipeline. To take the city’s biggest and most ambitious future housing site – Hengrove Park – as an example, by adding this site to Goram’s pipeline, Bristol will benefit from over 700 new affordable homes when the build is completed. A significant proportion of these will be social rented council homes. That is 50% of the overall total of just over 1,400 sustainable new homes that will be delivered. In fact, out of the 2,992 new homes in Goram’s list of sites, 48% of them will be affordable – a far higher percentage than is likely with developers operating under a more ‘normal’ market model.

Affordable to whom?

We’re very aware that when we talk about “affordable” homes, it means very different things to different people. Put simply, it means housing for eligible households who cannot afford to pay market rents or are unable to buy homes at market value. Types of affordable housing include social rented properties, affordable rented properties, and shared ownership homes.

National policy defines affordable rents as 20% below the market rent. In Bristol, we’re committed to going further than this. Our priority is Social Rent, which is the most affordable of rented homes. Affordable housing providers in Bristol also cap each new letting at Local Housing Allowance levels, which are well below 80% of the market rent.

If you want to know more about affordable housing, this blog from the Bristol Housing Festival is a good place to start.

The council and Goram Homes’ approach will remain focused on building and supporting mixed, balanced communities. That means a mix of affordable and market homes, with sustainability and community at their heart. By delivering homes in such a way, we can make sure that we build the homes we need to give people from across Bristol the opportunity to call somewhere home.

High-Rise Blocks

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I was saddened to hear news of the tragic events of the fire at Grenfell Tower in London yesterday.   My thoughts and sympathies are with the friends and families of all those affected.

I would like to reassure Council Tenants that the Council and Avon Fire and Rescue Service work extremely closely on fire safety and all our tower blocks have Fire Risk Assessments in place which are checked annually.   We also have a number of other safety measures in place, such as smoke detectors in every home.

We do not believe that there is any cause for concern about the council’s housing blocks, but the Council will of course consider the details of the fire in London as they emerge, including whether there are any other steps which may need to be taken.

You can hear my Cabinet Lead for Housing, Paul Smith, speak on BBC Radio Bristol this morning about the safety of high-rise blocks in the city via: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p054dcbb (2:06:30)