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21st March 2005, 21:48
| #1 |
| Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 5
 |  are bellway any good 'if not who are?'
I live in an Area called NEWHEARTLANDS (Pathfinder) innitiative which is a Govorment innitiative to build Socail Housing intergrated into private developments, Bellway are the preferrred developers and i am concerned. Can anyone advise as to how best to deal with bellways. Does anyone know of any other developments were social housing has been done on Brownfeild Sites???? We are a community group with representation for those that are on benefits and there appears no-one out there to represent them even though this development is tearing the heart out of homes that are over 100 yrs old in some places. sarison |
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21st March 2005, 21:55
| #2 |
| Administrator Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 989
  | are bellway any good 'if not who are?'
Social housing is usually built to much higher standards than houses for private buyers and are covered by a commerical contract - they are only accepted by the housing association if they are complete Hope that helps Tony
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21st March 2005, 22:02
| #3 |
| Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 5
| are bellway any good 'if not who are?'
Thanks tony may i ask a number of questions of you as follows how do i get the standards in writing? what is a commercial contract, how do i get a copy? How do social housing (RSL's) and developers work together if these developments have never been done? will it mean the whole development is liable to additional costs to accomodate the social housing sector?? how would you intergrate social housing within a private development?? |
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21st March 2005, 22:45
| #4 |
| Guest
Posts: n/a
| are bellway any good 'if not who are?'
I have to agree with Tony. I was involved with the construction industry for nearly 30 years both on site as a City & Guilds trained apprentice and the in later years as a consulting engineer with degree qualification. With out a doubt any work for councils' was of a higher standard because they had clerks of works who would visit site regularly or even be site based. There were different clerks of works for for contruction and electrical/plumbing etc. Any main contractor before being awarded the contract would have tendered against a tight specification which would have been thoroughly checked before contracts would be issued. Today however even councils and the like have had to make cuts and many now out source the design, tendering, checking etc and furthermore many of the same councils are notorious for paying their bills. It has not been uncommon for invoices to be outstanding for 120 days plus. As a consequence some of the better companies from the past will not undertake this sort of work. So to safeguard yourselves it would be better to employ an independant company or individuals who specialize in groundworks, construction and building services who can inspect at periodic intervals prior to staged payments being released. Only then can one mitigate some of the problems that are encountered in many of todays new builds or refurbishments. This will actually save money in the long run. Unfortunately there are some very good tradesman around who can command high prices but these are far outweighed by the numerous cowboys and average 'house-bashers'. |
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21st March 2005, 23:51
| #5 |
| Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 5
| are bellway any good 'if not who are?'
am i missing the point ??? Local Authorities DONT build social housing (that i do know) anymore thats why many many rsl's have suddenly risen from the dust. Developers havent build Social housing and "For Sale" homes on the same site as a joint development ie demolish 800+ homes replace with 300 new builds. so i ask ............ will developers look to make a killing from the social housing section of any proposals??? will developers look to building the same standard as you assume they do with any other social housing developments?? |
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21st March 2005, 23:58
| #6 |
| Administrator Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 989
| are bellway any good 'if not who are?'
The local authority can require any development over a certain size to have an affordable housing provision. It is called a section 106. If these houses are being managed by a Housing Association they will be lower specification that the other houses but finished to a better standard. They make a higher margin because the density is higher and the specification is lower - I think. Does that help? Tony
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22nd March 2005, 00:13
| #7 |
| Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 5
| are bellway any good 'if not who are?'
does this mean that you can have a row of say 10 homes and within this you get 3 social housing 3 x for sale, 1 social housing, 2 x for sale 1 x social housing, 3 x for sale could/would this happen? we all know those that live in social deprivation who are having there homes demolished for the sake of Regeneration will "NOT BLOODY LIVE NEXT TO ME" and they are continually excluded at what cost............. Developers coming in and builting homes that cant be garunteed to last longer than 30yrs, Have we not learned from the Victorians on how to build proper homes that last for ever. have no measures of inspection during construction by the owners who pay serious monies to developers who garuntee all aspects of a development will be to a very high standard (oh sorry they wont will they cos your home is not a Social house but they are better that yours cos the regulation/standard. |
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22nd March 2005, 00:16
| #8 |
| Administrator Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 989
| are bellway any good 'if not who are?'
The rules vary from Local Authority to Local Authority. It might be worth checking with them to see what the rules are. Tony
__________________ Get the Snagging Guide for FREE. Snagging Photos. Visit the consumer forums - for more general consumer advice and information about your consumer rights. |
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23rd March 2005, 00:14
| #9 |
| Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 5
| are bellway any good 'if not who are?'
Well took your advise and asked the planning officer questions regarding the development proposals to which i was given the usual answers spin after spin. How do you enforse a law when there aint anyone there to regulate it and they dont intend to employ anyone to do it either???? |
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23rd March 2005, 00:26
| #10 |
| Administrator Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 989
| are bellway any good 'if not who are?'
You could try a Freedom of Infomration request. It will cost you ?16 and as long as it doesn't cost more than ?600 they have to provide you with the info you want i.e. letters and plans Tony
__________________ Get the Snagging Guide for FREE. Snagging Photos. Visit the consumer forums - for more general consumer advice and information about your consumer rights. |
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