Glasgow council leader Susan Aitken and Scotland’s cabinet secretary for communities and local government Aileen Campbell were joined by Keepmoat Homes regional managing director Beth McNeil and Bernadette Hewitt, chair of social landlord GHA, to mark the start of work on the 824-home scheme.
The development, to be known as NorthBridge, is part of the £250m Sighthill Transformational Regeneration Area (TRA) and will feature a mix of two-, three-, four- and five-bedroom houses and one- and two-bedroom apartments.
NorthBridge is being delivered by Keepmoat Homes in partnership with GHA and its sister organisation, Lowther Homes, which are both part of Wheatley Group. Lowther will manage the site’s 198 homes that are for mid-market rent.
The Sighthill TRA – which has an area of more than 50ha – is immediately beside the city centre, just 15 minutes’ walk from George Square.
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Recently completed features of the regenerated Sighthill include a recently-opened community campus school and a new road bridge over the Glasgow-Edinburgh railway line.
The parkland and the greenspace of the area are being significantly improved, and work will shortly begin on a landmark new pedestrian and cyclist bridge connecting Sighthill to the city centre. In addition, a new public square, new shops and businesses will come to Sighthill, and the area will be reconnected to the Forth and Clyde canal at the Pinkston basin. Land remediation - now complete - funded through the Glasgow City Region City Deal has made the delivery of the new features possible.
In addition to the new homes, Keepmoat has made long-term commitments to benefit the surrounding community including training, employment and engagement programmes to be delivered throughout the lifetime of the project. As part of this, Keepmoat has partnered with Morgan Sindall, Glasgow Kelvin College, Tigers Training and Sibbald Training to create Build North Glasgow, a consortium offering training to 180 participants, including 90 ex-military staff, to kick-start their career in construction. Build North Glasgow received £1.2m funding from CITB in order to deliver the programmes.
McNeil said: “We are delighted to welcome the cabinet secretary for communities and local government to the launch of our exciting new development in Glasgow. We are very excited to be starting work on the NorthBridge development, which we believe firmly is a once-in-a-generation project which will transform the area. This development means more to us than just delivering quality new homes to the area, which is why we’re proud to be working with partners including Morgan Sindall, Glasgow Kelvin College, Tigers Training and Sibbald Training to invest in the community to ensure the impact of this development goes beyond bricks and mortar and delivers real value to real people, whether through training and career opportunities or supporting local community groups.”
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