Transforming St. William's: Building Affordable Homes Through Community Collaboration
Prima Group and Housing People Building Communities (HPBC) are working in collaboration to deliver 27 new, affordable homes at the former St William’s RC Church in Ince, Wigan.
The homes are being created using the HPBC Sweat Equity model, which enables the future purchasers, known as Home Partners, to make up to £10,000 contribution to the cost of their new home through working on site for up to 500 hours.
The homes will be available on a shared ownership basis through the Homes England affordable homes programme. This enables purchasers to secure a share of the home and rent the remaining share from Prima Group, the landlord.
An event to launch the scheme was held at St William's Social Club on Friday 13th October.
The event was attended by over 60 guests from a range of supporters and contributors, including the Archdiocese of Liverpool, who donated the site to HPBC to enable the scheme, Home England and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, who have helped fund the scheme, and employees from Wigan Council, who have helped guide the scheme through the planning and approval processes.
Members of the audience heard from Richard Bacon MP, who chairs the cross-party self-build group and has long supported HPBC. Prima Group Chair, Rob Young, spoke of the excitement of being part of such an innovative program and how it fits with the company's ethos. Shannon Leadbetter, Chair of the HPBC Trustees, also commented on how exciting the scheme is.
Former Rugby League player Martin Crompton, who has lived in Ince his whole life and is now working on the site, shared his experiences as a former regular parishioner of St William's, emphasising the importance of heritage that the scheme delivers.
Guests were given a tour of the site and viewed first-hand the progress that is being made and saw for the first time a CGI video of how the finished scheme will look.
