£40m redevelopment of Bellsmyre to be delivered in smaller phases after funding cut

A £40million plan to transform Bellsmyre will be delivered in smaller phases after a Scottish Government funding cut, developers have announced.

Earlier this year we told how Caledonia Housing Association’s (CHA) proposals for 140 new eco-friendly homes stalled after Holyrood cash for the project was slashed as part of cuts, leaving residents in limbo.

The move comes amid a crisis in the affordable rented housing sector with 6,000 people in West Dunbartonshire waiting for homes.

Following a review of the project, Caledonia Housing Association last week provided tenants and impacted factored owners with an update on the revised plans.

The new proposal aims to deliver an increased number of smaller phases over an extended period with the first phase consisting of 27 new homes to be built at Whiteford Avenue.

The housing mix within the revised proposal has been amended to primarily meet the needs of those tenants currently living in temporary homes and those in future demolition phases.

A revised plan is being finalised and is due to be submitted to West Dunbartonshire Council in July.

Original plans included the construction of 140 new, affordable, two-storey homes (now 138 homes) to replace 225 flats.

Julie Cosgrove, Chief Executive, Caledonia Housing Association, said: “The project team has been working at pace to review and create a new proposal to advance the next phase of the Bellsmyre regeneration programme. Our goal at Caledonia is to ensure that we continue to contribute to increasing the supply of quality, affordable housing across Scotland.

“We have continued to engage with our tenants and the community in Bellsmyre to keep them updated on our progress and we hope to receive a positive response from West Dunbartonshire Council once our new proposal has been submitted.”

While the planning application is under review, Caledonia say that they will be working with contractors, CCG, to finalise pricing for this phase of the regeneration and a funding application will be submitted to the Scottish Government later this year.

Construction is expected to commence in early 2025 subject to all approvals being in place.

Earlier this year, Housing Minister Paul McLennan said:“We will invest £556m in 2024-25 on affordable housing to increase the delivery of more affordable homes, the majority of which will be for social rent, including supporting acquisitions of existing properties.

“However, the UK Government failed to inflation-proof their capital budget, and this has resulted in nearly a 10 per cent real terms cut in our UK capital funding between 2023-24 and 2027-28.

“This is on top of the disastrous impact Brexit has had on construction supply chain issues, labour shortages and the inflationary pressures driven by UK Government financial mismanagement.

“We remain focused on delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 and to support that we will bring forward the review scheduled for 2026-27 to 2024, which will concentrate on deliverability.”