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New housing development opened
02 June 2010

New housing development opened

Railway Housing Association has opened its newest affordable housing development – in one of Darlington’s most sought after areas.

The Association has completed work on 13 family homes at Collingsway in West Park.

The £1.28 million development has resulted in the creation of eight three-bedroom houses and five four-bedroom, three-storey houses.

All the residents are now settling into their new homes, including Deborah Spence, who has moved into a four-bedroom, three-storey home with her children Hannah, 18, Harry, 14, and twins James and Matthew, four.

Deborah, 38, who works full-time as a Residential Care Worker for Durham County Council, said: “The house is amazing and we have all settled in very quickly. We could not have afforded to rent a house of a similar size and quality on the open market and we are grateful to Railway Housing Association for providing us with such a lovely home.”

Railway Housing Association were allocated the homes by developer Bussey Armstrong as part of a Section 106 agreement, a Government initiative that requires a certain number of houses on a new development to be given for affordable housing purposes.

Anne Rowlands, Chief Executive of Railway Housing Association, said: “We are delighted to have opened such a modern development in one of Darlington’s most popular areas.

“As an organisation with its head office in Darlington we are proud of the fact we are helping to make a significant contribution to making housing more affordable for local people.

“In today’s climate it is even harder for people to buy a home and the cost of private rents is also high, so by offering high quality homes at very affordable rents, we are giving people an opportunity to live independently in a nice area, with the longer term aim of allowing them to save the money needed to get the first rung on the property ladder.”