4 March 2015
Work has begun on a groundbreaking custom build housing development in north London – the UK’s first purpose-built, senior cohousing scheme exclusively for older women.
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Theresa Villiers, MP for Chipping Barnet and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, signalled the start on site of the ‘New Ground Cohousing’ development in Union Street, Barnet. The site will see 25 one, two, and three-bedroom homes developed for the Older Women’s Cohousing (OWCH) of Barnet by the Hanover Housing Association.
OWCH is a group of women aged from 50 to 80+ who got together to plan this first co-housing community of older people in the UK.
The completed scheme will encompass 25 flats – 17 of which have already been acquired off-plan by members of OWCH. Eight flats, part-funded by the Tudor Trust, have been set aside for OWCH members who are social renters, in partnership with charitable housing association Housing for Women who specialise in providing gender sensitive support services to women.
In a fully collaborative process, OWCH has worked with Hanover through the planning phase and with architects Pollard Thomas Edwards on the design of the completed scheme – in accordance with local environmental and HAPPI (Housing Our Ageing Population Panel for Innovation) Report recommendations. The aim is to create a contemporary, well-designed, low-energy building – including common areas and garden space – suitable for living in later years and blending sympathetically with the local conservation area.
The scheme is due to complete in February 2016, when Hanover will hand over management of the scheme to Housing for Women, a charity supporting women by providing secure, affordable housing and related services.
Tracy Lavers, Executive Director of Development for Hanover, said: “It is a really interesting and innovative project, reflecting a range of tenures, and Hanover is fully committed to its success.
“It has naturally taken time to get to this stage with this scheme – we are really at the outset of the construction stage of this project. All the hard work and planning to date by all stakeholders finally starts to come to fruition, though we know there will be challenges ahead. We look forward with our partners in OWCH, and with the other stakeholders, to the success of this project.”
Maria Brenton, a consultant for OWCH, added: “It is a fine achievement to have come this far. Even more important than construction, though, is the ‘virtual community’ OWCH members have already developed as a basis for their life together in the new building.”
The construction of ‘New Ground Cohousing’ is being undertaken by Quinn London.
