Rooftop Housing Group own a number of properties, including a block of 5 semi-detached houses, in Manor Road, Middle Littleton which are known as Airey Houses.  The current Airey houses are post war prefabricated houses made from a precast concrete system which are inefficient and costly to maintain. They have gone beyond their economic life and an estimate of two more years had been given for their useful state.

Rooftop Housing Group is committed to providing great homes for their customers that are energy efficient, well maintained and fit for purpose.  Reinvestment in the Airey Houses as they currently stand is not viable and therefore Rooftop Housing plans to redevelop the site on which the block of 5 semi-detached properties stand in order to provide brand new homes, not only for their existing customers but also to meet local housing need.

They wished, through a community led housing development process, to engage with their customers from the outset so that as much as possible the scheme was able to meet customers’ requirements.

The Process

Rooftop Housing Group has placed great emphasis on the role their customers will play in shaping the future of this new development and their estate.   The process has not only involved those customers who will be directly affected by this redevelopment but has also kept other customers and residents of Manor Road involved and provided the opportunity for them to give feedback.  Rooftop Housing have also taken steps to ensure that the Parish Council and the wider village have been kept informed and engaged. Visual and participative methods were used to ensure maximum engagement and involvement in the process, in the first instance and most importantly their customers who will be directly affected, and, secondly, other customers and interested residents.   

The Planning for Real Unit, working closely with all members of the Team, the Planning for Real methodology has been adapted to fulfil the needs of this project and has consisted of a number of different phases so far: 

• raising awareness / introducing the scheme and the role of Rooftop customers;
• Rooftop customers’ morning workshop and afternoon drop-in session for other Rooftop customers and interested residents to provide an opportunity for discussion, input and gathering of views; and
• An Exhibition of the emerging Plans with a further opportunity to provide feedback during a morning session for those Rooftop customers directly affected and during an afternoon session for other customers and interested residents. 

Participation

All events have been held in the local Village Hall which is located just at the end of Manor Road and therefore very accessible and convenient for Manor Road Rooftop customers and residents, as well as those from the wider village area.  Saturdays were chosen as the day of the week to hold the engagement activity / events on as again it was felt that this would offer maximum opportunity for Rooftop customers to attend and participate.  Attendance has been good and records show that the majority of the directly affected households have attended all events held so far.

Programme of Engagement events

There have been a total of 5 engagement opportunities as follows:

• Saturday, 26^th January 2019: a raising awareness / introduction to the scheme / opportunity for one-to-one discussions – morning session for directly affected Rooftop customers and during the afternoon a drop-in session for other Manor Road residents, local Councillors, and other interested residents from the wider village.
• Saturday, 16^th February 2019: during the morning an interactive workshop session for directly affected Rooftop customers and an afternoon drop-in session for other Manor Road residents, local Councillors, and other interested residents from the wider village.
• Wednesday, 20^th March 2019: Rooftop Housing Officers attend a Parish Council meeting to give feedback on progress to date and answer questions from residents who were present
• Saturday, 11^th May 2019: exhibition of the “journey” so far and opportunity to see how the plans are shaping up in response to earlier views gathered and to give further feedback – again morning session for directly affected Rooftop customers and afternoon session (both drop in) for other Manor Road residents, local Councillors, and other interested residents from the wider village.
• 14^th June 2019: a meeting just with Parish Councillors to gather their views on the development.   This was a very positive meeting.

Throughout the process Rooftop Housing Officers have been in regular contact with their customers, either through face-to-face meetings, via email or on the telephone and responding to any queries and supporting their customers in fully understanding the process and the proposals where needed. See Appendix A for images from the engagement events.

What has happened since

Plans submitted by Rooftop Housing Group to replace 10 Airey Houses on Manor Road in Middle Littleton have been passed unanimously Wychavon District Council Planning Committee on Thursday 6th February.

The strong relationship developed with residents during the community led consultation and design process has helped Rooftop to relocate all the current residents and every family will be able to return to the development, if they wish, once it has been completed.

Once redeveloped, this new community will comprise of 21 units for social rent, affordable rent and Shared Ownership. Built by Local Homes, an off-site advanced housing manufacturer using a closed timber frame system these properties will be a more sustainable, environmentally conscious, low carbon alternative to more traditional brick-built structures.

Work on the new development will commence in March 2020 with the residents being able to move into the new properties in Spring 2021.

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