Scarborough charity to build affordable bungalows for 'older people'
Flower Fund Homes has been given £381,170
A local housing charity will receive £380,000 from the council to support the construction of four bungalows for elderly people.
Scarborough Council’s cabinet has unanimously approved a £381,170 grant to Flower Fund Homes at its meeting on Tuesday February 14.
The bungalows will be built on land at Woodlands Grove which is adjacent to an existing scheme run by the charity called Flower Garth, where 36 bungalows are currently provided.
The total project cost amounts to £762,340 including build costs, fees and contingencies, with Scarborough Flower Fund Homes providing 50 per cent match funding.
Set up in 1969, the organisation has developed 104 properties, all for rent, across five sites in Scarborough, Filey, Cayton and Seamer.
Cllr Carl Maw, cabinet member for housing and stronger communities, said: “As a lot of people may already know, we were awarded some money from the Government in order to develop some community-led housing around the borough.
“After quite a while, this particular one is coming to a culmination of approved funding so that they can produce those houses.”
According to a council report, Flower Fund Homes applies local connection criteria for all its developments to ensure that they are “only made available to persons in need from the local community”.
It also has a policy of setting rents at an affordable level to ensure that they are “affordable to local persons in need” and also offers assured shorthold tenancies.
Speaking at the meeting, a council officer told the cabinet that the charity, which provides housing to “older persons”, currently has 52 households on its waiting list.
The officer added that the council recently granted planning permission to the proposed development of the four bungalows.
Flower Fund Homes has said that construction is anticipated to start in September this year and is set to take around nine months, with completion anticipated by June 2024.
The funding comes from a £1.86m grant received by Scarborough Council in 2016 from the Government’s Community Housing Fund.