A HOUSING association has marked the start of its new 143-home development by staging a turf-cutting event at its site in Crewe.

North West-based Your Housing Group welcomed the start of the new development in Crewe by inviting councillors, dignitaries and key partners to join them at the site of the former Bombardier factory on Dunwoody Lane in the town.

All of the 143 homes and apartments being built will be available for affordable rent and shared equity and are being built by Countryside Properties, in partnership with Cheshire East Council.

Designed to create a community within a community – The Carriages, the new name for the housing development – will cost £14m including a grant from the HCA and forms part of Your Housing Group’s extensive affordable homes programme.

Deborah McLaughlin, executive director for the north at the HCA, said: “It is great to see work starting at the Carriages.

“Ensuring affordable housing is available where it is needed most remains one of our main priorities, so I look forward to seeing these much-needed homes completed.”

The Carriages will see one bed apartments, two and three bed homes being built on the 6.5 acre site, offering much needed affordable family accommodation to Crewe town centre.

Kathy Cowell, chair of Your Housing Group, added: “It is very important to Your Housing Group that our new housing developments benefit the community, and ensure that people who are already a part of that community can afford to live there.

“The Carriages sits firmly within the Group’s vision of ‘transforming lives and communities’ and will not only create homes, but also build and reinforce the community. This type of regeneration of an area is vital to the growth of the town.”

The Carriages is due to open in spring 2015 and anyone interested in homes on the development should contact the sales team on 0845 618 5008.