For decades, the community living in Beyond Housing’s Church Lane North estate faced persistent challenges from a sustained succession of high occupant turnover, empty properties, crime and anti-social behaviour.

The estate’s Radburn Layout (back-to-front properties), contributed to its problems; providing no rear gardens, privacy or defensible space alongside plenty of alleyways and a poor public realm; all of which converged into a landscape of disengagement and unwanted behaviours.

Regular contact with residents made it clear, that when funding to regenerate the estate became available it would be about more than improving properties; it would aim to enhance quality of life. 

The community’s lived experience formed the backbone of the regeneration, which aimed to tackle concerns residents identified in engagement activities. This, alongside asset performance data and Beyond Housing’s employee feedback was the basis of a truly evidence-based approach to decision making, which has been fundamental to the success of the £16m investment.

Beyond Housing worked with Logic Architects, with the input of the Designing Out Crime officer at Cleveland Police, and Southern Green Landscape Architects to produce a masterplan that fundamentally addressed the issues identified by residents. Equans Regeneration Ltd was appointed to bring the masterplan to fruition, completing a broad range of improvements across hundreds of homes and the estate at large.

Reversing property layouts to face onto roads. The estate’s layout was one of the residents’ biggest concerns.  Houses were redesigned to face the roads, which provided 200 private gardens and suitable parking for residents. 100% of Beyond Housing’s homes at Church Lane North now having a defined private space. The benefits of this extend beyond the increased property value, and into the quality of life that this creates for households –28% of which are single parent families; with known benefits of private gardens including improved mental and physical health and encouraging socialisation and family time.

Improving energy efficiency to achieve EPC C. 318 homes were improved through this scheme. The stark improvement to the physical appearance of these homes has reignited pride in the community.  Properties benefited from retrofit measures including external wall insulation and new roofs, and 100% of these homes now achieve EPC C (previously low D). Not only does this make the estate a more pleasant place to live and visit, it has had a measurable impact on energy consumption in homes, which in turn means residents, 43.8% of whom are in receipt of housing benefits and 32% who have an income of just £100-£149 pw, spend less on heating their properties and can redirect that expenditure to other needs.

Creating new roads to form a central spine through the estate and provide closer vehicular access to properties. The benefits of this are obvious to anyone who has had to carry heavy grocery shopping to their home through the rain, but those who particularly benefit from this are the 35.5% of residents reporting having disabilities, and those who visit them to provide care services.

Developing high-quality open spaces. All of the public realm spaces associated with nuisance and anti-social behaviours, such as alleyways and cut throughs were irradicated through the estate’s new design. In their place, a new high-quality and open public space has been created.

Addressing long-term vacant properties, including selective demolitions to facilitate the new road layout, and bringing 15 properties back into use, increasing community pride and reducing degeneration.

33 new homes constructed in a variety of tenures and types to meet local needs and cater for the ever growing demand for social housing.

With such a vast and varied programme of works, and a live environment that changed according to the ebbs and flows of residents’ lives, building a multi-disciplinary partnership based on agility and collaboration was vital. It was known at the outset that the project’s ambitious vision could only be achieved by equally ambitious, driven and innovating partners working in collaboration.

Considering the scope and scale of the development, contractor Equans mobilised a larger site team to manage the scheme efficiently, more effectively manage subcontractors, and ensure issues were promptly dealt with.

Resident engagement

As one resident aptly summarised prior to start “This is about residents. This is about doing the best thing for the residents and the people and the community, and I think it’s fantastic”.

The scale of the project and impact on residents’ daily lives, meant many tenants had to be engaged in the process. Dedicated Resident Liaison Officers from Equans and Beyond Housing worked closely together to make sure residents were kept up-to-date and concerns were quickly brought to the attention of the appropriate teams for resolution.

Since completion, positive feedback has continued to flow, with residents expressing their joy at having safe secure spaces for their children, animals, and themselves to enjoy safely. 

An aspiring social value strategy

To further impact the prosperity of the Grangetown area, a social value strategy was actioned alongside the programme of works, spanning economic, environmental and community interventions. 

Understanding residents’ concerns and aspirations was key to creating a community engagement programme that would leave a lasting legacy for all generations across the estate. 

Meaningful community engagement was woven into the fabric of the scheme, including interventions around employment and training opportunities, decreasing arrears and increasing digital inclusion.

A detailed three phase plan of activity was implemented, with measurable impacts against each initiative; each of which tying to at least one problem-area. 

Ben Briggs, Regeneration Manager at Beyond Housing said: “It was really important to us that the organisations involved in delivering Church Lane North were committed to delivering a project where outcomes extend beyond  bricks and mortar, and made a real and lasting difference to residents’ quality of life.

Through our resident-first, partnership approach, Church Lane North’s regeneration has transformed the neighbourhood. Homes are more attractive and energy-efficient, and the estate’s footprint has been put to far better use. By improving the design, adding private gardens, and enhancing public spaces, the project has fostered a renewed sense of pride and ownership among residents and positively changed the way the neighbourhood is used by its community.  We are confident that the positive influence we have seen so far will only continue to flourish in the months and years to come.”

Gary Wintersgill, Managing Director at Equans added: “The beauty of a scheme like Church Lane North is that it truly ticks all the boxes. It’s got great visual impact, produces substantial environmental gains and tackles the root causes of trouble that some communities find themselves facing. 

Residents’ voice was front-and-centre of the design process, so we know that every hole we dig, brick we lay and screw we tighten, we are making life better for residents, making the community stronger, and impacting on the green agenda to better the world at large.” 

Church Lane North’s regeneration demonstrates the synergism that can be achieved when developers take the opportunity to go further when undertaking works that will disrupting residents’ homes. When looking to improve the estate and improve its energy efficiency; the scheme took into account wider feedback from residents and designed a solution that would make the estate more carbon-friendly whilst also tackling the key issues that the community itself sought answers to
www.equans.co.uk