There’s a week to go!! Don’t miss this chance to have your say about the type of housing we need and where it should be built in the Holme Valley. If you haven’t completed the survey, it takes 10 minutes or so. The closing date for the survey is Friday 28th February 2025. Kirklees Early Engagement exercise to inform the Local Pan review closes soon. The opportunity to comment is open to residents, community groups, business operators, landowners and developers. The Council is calling for sites to be nominated for possible development, saying it wants to look at as many options as possible and choose the most suitable sites for where new development goes. Many people in the Valley agree there is a need for more lower cost houses, more houses for rent and more smaller houses to be built. They also want to see more job opportunities in the Valley so younger people don’t have to move away. But where should these houses and workplaces be located? To find out more and have your say, fill in the survey at Kirklees Development Plan Kirklees Council.
The prospect of 10 new homes at low rents for families in the Scholes area of the Holme Valley, took a step forward this week. The final planning approval has been issued for the energy efficient homes exclusively for local households priced out of the housing market. Following some long delays in finalising the legal documentation, Kirklees Council published the planning decision on its website on Friday 11th October 2024.
The homes will be built on the ex-quarry,Chippings site on Chapelgate. Connect Housing will build and manage the houses. They are making progress in engaging contractors. It is likely that work will start on the building works in early 2025.
On the 24th of April EcoHolmes held its fourth AGM with lots to report and some very interesting talks from guest speakers Professor Phil Brown, from Huddersfield University, Department of Housing & Communities, and Richard Townend of GWP Architecture.
Our Chair, Stephen Sheard shared our progress over the past 12 months, most notably with the planned development of 10 low energy affordable homes on the edge of Scholes in partnership with Connect Housing Association, but also proposals for retrofitting the empty old Parish Council office building in central Holmfirth. This was followed by a look at the scale of the decarbonisation challenge as it relates to housing and how the quality of housing affects health and well-being outcomes.
Professor Phil Brown had some startling figures to share around the impact and cost of poor quality housing and outlined the need to fix leaky homes, switch to low carbon heating systems, while avoiding harm to low income households. He advocated the need to promoteg behaviour change in policy makers as well as tenants and home owners.
Our second speaker, PassivHaus / Retrofit designer, and local resident, Richard Townend, expanded on the ‘fabric first’ approach to designing an Eco Home, and the details included within the housing designs for our Chippings project.
For AGM information and slides for both talks, click here for our Policies & Reports page.
Last year we shared our news that plans for affordable, low energy homes at an old quarry site in Scholes had been approved. We are now able to announce that we’ll be partnering with Connect Housing Association on delivering and managing these homes for the benefit of local people.
Connect have a proven track record in providing thousands of quality homes, alongside various support services to families across West Yorkshire. To find out more about our new partner, visit the link below: https://www.connecthousing.org.uk/about-us
For more details and news about our Chippings housing development, click here.
Show your support for EcoHolmes and our mission to build more affordable low-energy homes in the valley – please join us as a member.
EcoHolmes have taken an exciting major step forward in our journey to build low energy homes that local people can afford. Kirklees Planning Committee on 2nd March 2023 approved our planning application to build 10 homes on the ex-quarry site Chippings on the edge of Scholes village. The hard work of making it a reality now begins and the baton passes to our partners Connect Housing and architects GWP Architecture
With the help of a recommendation from the planners and support from councillors who recognise the pressing need for affordable places to live, this ground-breaking decision was taken 5 votes to 2. We are grateful to local councillors who have argued for the proposal and to the many people who wrote in to support the application.
It is first for Kirklees and the Holme Valley in two ways:
We are the first Community Land Trustto get to get planning consent for 100% affordable homes in Kirklees
This is the first use of the Council’s rural exceptions planning policy which allows house-building on an exceptional basis on greenbelt land if it is exclusively for local people who would otherwise be unable to afford to live where they have a proven local connection. Our case for this exception has been robustly challenged by the Kirklees planners. In the end, they accepted the evidence of our study into unmet housing needs existing in this part of the Holme Valley.
The new homes will be built to high standards of energy efficiency ensuring lower fuel bills, at reduced rents, secure tenancies and let to people with a local connection.
“We are delighted that the Council’s Planning Committee has the vision to support 10 families who can build their lives in the villages they come from where they have their family around them”, said Stephen Sheard, Chair of EcoHolmes.
With a housing waiting list of 20,000 and private rent levels rocketing, this marks a small but important step in providing extra affordable rented housing in Kirklees. We are delighted that the quality of design of the scheme was recognised, particularly the energy efficiency elements of the homes to be built on Passivhaus principles.
In a rare move the homes will be built in the Green Belt – justified under Government policy only because the homes will be only for the evidenced need of people who cannot afford to live in their local area.
Working closely with the Holme Valley Land Charity (whose land it is) and Connect Housing, a local West Yorkshire housing association, EcoHolmes have designed a small housing community using ideas gathered through consultation with local people across the Holme Valley.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkPrivacy policy
Recent Comments