Gleeson - Mixed-Use Development - Cheshire, £65m Cheshire Scheme for Elderly Care
Date: 13 Nov 2006
Cheshire County Council has announced its selection of the AvantAge Consortium, comprising Harvest Housing Group, Gleeson Group and Nationwide Building Society, as its preferred bidder for its £65m visionary scheme to provide five extra care villages across the county.
433 state-of-the art homes for older people at Crewe, Winsford, Ellesmere Port, Middlewich and Handforth will help create a 'world class' care concept by 2009 - 2010. A variety of tenure options are available to residents, ranging from assured tenancies for rent, through shared-ownership to leasehold for sale.
The project - one of the country's first such to be funded by the Government's Private Finance Initiative - will help Cheshire to meet the challenging effects of extreme demographic change. By 2031 an estimated 26% of the county's population will be over the age of 65. This Extra Care project provides the county's next stage in its objective to meet the needs of the increasing number of older people in the region.
The AvantAge consortium offers a considerable degree of expertise gained upon the successful delivery of similar such projects, notably the Manchester - Grove Village - urban regeneration scheme.
AvantAge will build, maintain and service the care villages with Cheshire County Council responsible for the provision of all required levels of on-site domiciliary care supervision.
Each landscaped village will offer secure and affordable accommodation with facilities ranging from atria and TV lounges to fitness and rehabilitation suites, restaurants, hairdressing salons, assisted bathing, massage and aromatherapy.
And all will be designed in a way that will be sympathetic to different levels of care dependency, including dementia.
"Extra care housing delivers an exciting new vision of lifestyle for older people in the 21st century. We are providing world class care for our elderly," said County Councillor Lynn Hardwick, Executive Member for Adult Services.
"It is a lifestyle in which older people can feel more secure, enjoy ready access to the support they need and activities which promote fitness and continued development."
"The majority of older people will be healthier and more active than any previous older generation, but many more will also be frail and will require and deserve high quality care services."
And she added: "Our extra care villages will meet all these requirements - providing longer independence with an alternative to residential care at a time when places are frequently hard to come by."
David Taylor of Gleeson Capital Solutions and Bid Director for AvantAge said: "The consortium is a well-tried and tested team having worked extensively together on this type of social housing project".
"We are delighted to have reached this key mile stone and look forward to working with the County Council to provide a positive and lasting impact on the welfare of older people in Cheshire."
Ian Perry, Chief Executive Officer for the Harvest Housing Group, stated: "We are delighted to be part of the AvantAge preferred bidder team. This PFI project marks a major step forward in delivering modern, high quality mixed tenure communities for older people with care available to meet individuals' needs."
Work will start late next year, and the new facilities are expected to come on stream between mid-2008 and early 2009. All five developments currently enjoy outline planning permission and detailed permission has been applied for.
The overall cost of the five schemes within the project is estimated to be £65m and AvantAge, together with their key subcontractors, will operate the facilities over the thirty-year project term.
A number of different property types are incorporated in the project, from single bedroom apartments through to a selection of two-bedroomed options. A mix of tenanted or owner-occupied solutions, include shared-ownership, are on offer.
The individual sites offer alternative technical solutions including central atria within which are located community village squares including administrative and care offices, a hairdressing salon, local shop, café and restaurant with external terraces and enclosed winter gardens.
The internal street spaces will form busy hubs with a series of activity areas. Fitness suites, IT/library suites, lounge areas, hobby and craft rooms will take centre stage with a village hall, village garden and access to visitor parking.
All the schemes provide lift access to upper floors, shared landscaped gardens, laundry rooms and 'back doors' for refuse collection. Those schemes with central atria provide galleried access to upper floor apartments.
Additional features include management offices, staff training rooms, spa baths on each of the upper floors of residence and assisted bathroom facilities.
The successful AvantAge consortium is supported by an experienced service delivery team - Gleeson Building Limited to carry out construction work; Manchester and District Housing Association, part of the Harvest Housing Group, will be responsible for housing management and 'soft' facilities management services; with Powerminster, a subsidiary of the Gleeson Group, carrying out responsive and planned preventative maintenance works including long-term life-cycle replacement works.
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