Regeneration of Sale West recognised with prestigious Northern Housing Award

We’re delighted our work on the regeneration of the Sale West estate in Trafford has been recognised with a prestigious regional housing award.

The project scooped the Regeneration of the Year award at the Northern Housing Awards 2023 recognising our work so far enhancing the estate, improving existing homes and building more affordable homes to help address local housing need.

We were honoured to be short-listed alongside some other fantastic projects, including those led by Livin in County Durham and Placefirst in Liverpool, as well as S4B’s ‘Brunswick’ scheme in Ardwick, and Capital&Centric’s regeneration of Piccadilly East in Manchester.

Harnessing multiple funding streams from Homes England, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Trafford Council has been crucial to the success of the development, as has partnership working with our contractors Seddon and Connolly, architects AEW and the Big Lottery- funded Big Local group Our Sale West.

Highlights of phase 1 of the multi-million regeneration which were recognised with the award include:

Homes

• Building 46 new affordable homes so far with green features including electric heating, water saving technology and electric vehicle charging points which reduce the estate’s carbon footprint whilst saving customers money on energy bills.
• Fitting more than 600 new roofs and 230 new kitchens to existing homes.
• Launching a retrofit pilot on one of the existing homes on the estate to test new technology and see how we can make homes across the estate more energy efficient.

Environment

• Securing a £975k grant from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to deliver a raft of environmental enhancements to the estate.
• Upgrading roads, car parks, street signs and pedestrian linkages.
• Creating four new natural play areas and contributing towards a new central playground for residents to enjoy.
• Delivering a series of horticulture projects with the community allotment group and local schools, encouraging and up-skilling customers to grow their own.
• Installing bird boxes, swift bricks, swift boxes, hedgehog highways and a bug hotel to attract wildlife and boost biodiversity.
• Planting more than 230 trees to off-set carbon and help improve problems with surface water and flooding across the estate.

Community investment

• Hosting a lunch club at our community café twice a week for older members of the community to overcome loneliness and isolation..
• Hosting students with learning disabilities for work experience placements at the café.
• Collaborating with our construction partner Seddon on an apprentice swap.
• Supporting residents onto the HITZ youth engagement programme run by Sale Sharks, helping them to gain their first qualifications and preparing them for their first steps into employment.
• Offering apprenticeship and KickStart opportunities working on the regeneration.
• Funding the start-up costs of a social supermarket hub, providing residents with access to low-cost groceries.This is now used by more than 80 residents each week.
• Working with our partners Our Sale West to deliver more than 7,000 free school meals through the community café.

Customer involvement

• Regular consultation via surveys and questionnaires; focus groups and workshops; community events and targeted engagement with specific local groups and residents. 
• Working with residents to create three new street plans with the DLUHC grant – improving access to quality public realm and green space. Residents have worked in groups according to where they live to design the communal spaces they and their neighbours would like to use.
• Providing the opportunity for residents to dedicate the new trees being planted across the estate in either memory or celebration of local residents who have made/make a difference in the area.