Work starts on county's first new council homes in 30 years

* An artist's impression of how the new council homes will look.

Work has started on the first new council homes to be designed and built for the Denbighshire area in 30 years.

Denbighshire Housing will build 18 two-bedroom and 4 four-bedroom semi-detached houses for social rent on land above Tan y Sgubor, Denbigh, for Denbighshire County Council.

The low carbon homes, which will be built and certified to the energy-efficient Passivhaus standard, are part of the Council’s target to provide 170 more council houses by 2022.

Work started on site on October 19 and the development is expected to be completed by autumn 2021.

The frames and walls for the new houses will be made off site in North Wales by Creating Enterprise, a subsidiary of Cartrefi Conwy, using the Beattie Passive Build system and the main contractor for the development is Brenig Construction.

Cllr Tony Thomas, Denbighshire’s lead member for Housing and Communities, said: “The council is delighted that work has started on these new council homes, the first to be designed and built for the county in 30 years, and we are pleased to be working with our partners on this project.

“Ensuring there is housing available to meet the needs of Denbighshire residents is a priority under our Corporate Plan.

“These homes will help meet the housing needs of residents by providing quality homes that are affordable as well as offering the highest levels of insulation to reduce energy consumption and energy efficiency to minimise carbon emissions and reduce household bills.”

The Welsh Government has provided funding through its Innovative Housing Programme to enable the Council and Creating Enterprise to work together on this new way of building homes.

The houses will have solar panels on the roofs and will use pumps to transfer natural heat from under the ground to keep them warm so they won’t need a gas supply.