New £20m development brings nearly 100 affordable homes to Oldham

Almost 100 new affordable homes in a ‘vital location’ have been completed in Oldham.

Construction has finished on a £21m project by First Choice Homes Oldham (FCHO), which has brought 88 new houses and apartments to a new neighbourhood named ‘West Vale’.

The development, by Caddick Construction, is at the ‘gateway’ of Oldham town centre, on a pocket of land off West Street.

There are 26 two, three and four bedroom houses for shared ownership and 62 one and two bedroom apartments for affordable rent, though some of the new pads are already occupied.

Visible from the tram between Freehold and Westwood, the houses have an eye-catching design with three alternating brick colours, shared green areas and a small number of parking spaces.

The new seven-storey apartment block echoes the design of the houses.

All the new-builds also have an energy performance Certificate B rating and are completely ‘gas free’.

Instead, they make use  of sustainable technologies such as air source heat pumps.

This means the properties should be cheaper for homeowners and renters to heat during the winter months.

Steve Agger, executive director of Homes at FCHO said: “We have been proud to partner with Caddick Construction on our development at West Vale.

"The high quality of the build has made for a top-class project using local suppliers and contractors in many cases. “

The land near off West Street was once home to two ‘crumbling’ 60s tower blocks, Crossbank House and Summervale House.

Condemned as ‘unfit to live in’ by developers, these were demolished in 2021 to make way for the West Vale development.

The construction was reportedly completed with a focus on local supply chains from Greater Manchester, according to Dave Saville, Regional Managing Director of Caddick Construction North West.

Earlier this year, the project won Best Affordable Housing Development at the Housing Executive Awards in Bolton.

The scheme is one of several affordable housing projects approved in Oldham in the past five years, as the borough desperately tries to tackle a housing waiting list of 8,000 people – with some waits currently taking more than seven years.

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