EDAROTH to deliver sustainable, affordable homes in Bristol

Sustainable housing developer EDAROTH, has signed a development agreement with Bristol City Council to design and deliver 29 affordable homes – based on a new model created under Bristol’s involvement in the UN Climate Smart Cities challenge.

The new homes will be a mix of 13 houses and 16 apartments and will be constructed using offsite manufacturing methods to create low energy-use, net zero homes – which will provide additional capacity for the housing market and directly tackle the housing crisis.

Subject to planning approvals, they will be developed at six sites across Bristol on under-utilised land owned by the city council, including brownfield which is often overlooked by large-scale housing developers, but can be adapted/repurposed to unlock new space for communities.

Central to the development agreement are the sustainable construction methods that are used by EDAROTH including:

• The majority of the building parts are manufactured in a UK factory before being transported and assembled on-site.
• The carbon impact of the development process is reduced and also ensures the homes will be delivered more quickly compared with traditional methods of construction.
• There is minimal disruption to residents living near the development sites as a result.
• The new homes will be built to EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) A+, the highest efficiency rating possible to keep energy usage and carbon emissions low.

Councillor Tom Renhard, Cabinet Member for Housing Delivery and Homelessness at Bristol City Council, said: “We are thrilled that our collaboration with the UN Habitat for the Climate Smart Cities Challenge is set to deliver 29 social rent zero carbon council homes.

“This development of much needed affordable homes will add to the 12,500 new homes already completed in the city between 2016 and 2023. The new homes will help people in housing need, adding to the 474 new affordable homes built in Bristol in 2021/22.

“This wider collaboration is not just about the great homes that will be built, but it is helping us unlock small parcels of underutilised council land that have often been considered too complex or expensive to develop for council housing.

“We remain ambitious to see even more affordable housing built in our city and this new approach to unlock these small brownfield sites will help us do that whilst also protecting our vital green spaces.”

Mark Powell, Managing Director at EDAROTH (an acronym for Everyone Deserves a Roof Over Their Head), added: “Entering into a development agreement with Bristol City Council underlines their position as a forward-thinking local authority which places value in sustainable housing and infrastructure.

“Bristol, in common with the rest of the country, faces a huge demand for affordable homes. This scheme is one part of the solution which not only supports the ambition to meet that demand, but also aims to enhance communities by transforming under-used sites to create thriving places to live.

“The agreement is a really important step in this project which demonstrates the city council’s confidence in the proposals we’ve put forward and their determination to deliver low carbon, low-energy-use homes for the community.”

The agreement is based on an award-winning approach developed by the city council, and the One City team, with partners including the Housing Festival, AtkinsRéalis and EDAROTH, as one of four winning projects in the UN Habitat Climate Smart Cities Challenge in 2022.

Part of the challenge involved the creation of a demonstrator scheme that could prove how aggregating small sites for development, and overcoming systemic barriers, could unlock previously unviable sites to deliver truly affordable social housing.

The new approach identifies small parcels of land for development such as brownfield or under-used garage sites, within existing residential areas, which is more effective in creating social value and cohesion as it enables those existing communities to thrive.

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