7/5/20

A new residential development in the east of Cardiff, built as part of Cardiff Council's flagship house-building programme, has scooped a national award.

The Cardiff Living scheme development at Silvervale Park in St Mellons has won a RICSSocial Impact Awards, Wales for 2020 - Cardiff Living's third national award in the last 12 months.

Cardiff Living is a partnership initiative between the Council and national developer, Wates Residential, to build new 1,500 new homes, at least 600 of which will be council homes, across the city. The initiative is an important strand of the Council's wider housing development strategy that seeks to deliver 2,000 new council homes, 1,000 of which will be completed by 2022,  to meet high levels of demand for good quality, affordable homes.

The annual RICS awards recognise built environment's positive and transformational contribution to society and the range of projects and initiatives in this year's scheme showcased the very best from across Wales. This year's awards were held digitally in light of the current health crisis and the final can be seen herehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYOCIinhn3U

Silvervale Park was successful in the Residential category and the scheme will now go forward to be considered with other regional winners at the national awards ceremony in London in September.

The development on Willowbrook Drive is one of the largest sites in the Cardiff Living scheme and will deliver 187 new homes once fully completed. Some phases are already complete and new residents of both private and council homes are enjoying their new properties.

During the awards, the scheme was praised for its pleasing landscape and the inclusion of existing local communities in all levels of the project.

Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities, Cllr Lynda Thorne, said: "Cardiff Living is delivering good quality, new homes that people want to live in, both in the private sales market and our own council properties - they are lovely homes. 

"An important aim of the scheme from the outset has been to ensure new developments improve and enhance the communities in which they are being developed so that there are benefits for existing residents as well as those moving to new homes. It's pleasing that this latest award recognises how our new homes are helping to develop sustainable communities in the east of the city."

Paul Nicholls, Managing Director of Wates Residential, said: "We believe everyone deserves a great place to live and we can only achieve this by working with the local community to deliver what it wants.

"The design and combination of flats and houses was developed in consultation with those already living in the area and our sales strategy has been focused on attracting local people to purchase these homes. This has been successful with the vast majority of buyers from the local area. We are proud of the scheme and of our continued involvement with the local community beyond bricks and mortar."

The  RICS win is the latest accolade for the Cardiff Living partnership having already won the‘Best affordable housing scheme' in the What House national 2019 (UK) awards  and the Integration & Collaborative working award in the Constructing Excellence Wales 2019 awards.