Gateshead Council’s planning committee has approved the construction of 300 homes on the former freight sidings site, off the Felling bypass.
It is one of the biggest projects taken on by Gateshead Regeneration Partnership (GRP), a venture involving the council, builders Vistry Partnerships and housing association Home Group.
The plans include 60 apartments in three blocks, and 240 houses. Around 45 of the proposed new homes would be allocated for affordable rent, through Home Group, with around 100 more available for private rent, and 155 for market sale, through Vistry Partnerships’ sister company Linden Homes.
The council said that all the properties would have ‘much larger rooms, higher levels of energy efficiency and greater environmental performance than the average new build home’.
Councillor John Adams, cabinet member for housing at Gateshead Council said: “This is a fantastic town centre site, but one which had a lot of contamination and needed a lot of work to bring back into use. There are still many pieces of the jigsaw to complete but we are sure that our ambitious plans to deliver high quality housing will play a big part in supporting the revitalisation of central Gateshead."
Sean Egan, managing director of Vistry Partnerships North East, added: “The old freight depot site offers a unique opportunity to establish a housing lead regeneration project close to the centre of the town.”
Homes England has provided support funding for the project as part of a government programme to help unlock public land and speed of delivery of local authority housing schemes.
The proposed development is part of a £350m project being promoted by Gateshead Regeneration Partnership, with a target of building 2,000 new homes on 16 sites across the borough.
Construction of the first group of sites comprising 309 homes – in Saltwell, Deckham and Birtley – is nearly completed. Work on a second group of 108 is under way at three other sites – Rowlands Gill, Windy Nook and another Saltwell site.
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