Government housing agency Homes England has announced Barratt and David Wilson Homes North West as its preferred developer to provide 300 new homes at the former King’s School campus at Fence Avenue, Macclesfield.

The scheme gained full planning approval on July 29 2020 and offers a wide range of open market and affordable homes.

Homes England acquired the Fence Avenue campus from King’s School in August 2018, in an award-winning deal which saw the site being leased back to the school for two years so it could access upfront investment and build its new campus without interruption to education. The deal won Deal of the Year at the Insider North West Residential Property Awards in January 2019.

A high-quality design approach is has been adopted which blends into the existing landscape and reflects the character and style of the surrounding area. This follows on from Homes England’s introduction of a design quality assessment in its land disposals, which ensures developments follow Building for Life 12 criteria and provide local character and distinctiveness.

The development will provide 30 per cent affordable housing, 20 per cent more than the outline planning consent (in place when Homes England acquired the site in 2018) required. The site will now contain 90 affordable homes rather than 34, a significant increase and huge benefit to the local community.

Barratt and David Wilson Homes North West will partner with Torus, one of Homes England’s housing association strategic partners, to deliver a proportion of the affordable homes. Torus will also convert the historic school building, Fence House, on the site into apartments for market sale.

Construction of the school’s new campus is on schedule and is set to be open for the 2020/21 academic year. As well as a new school, a full suite of sports facilities will be available for community use. These include a 9-line 25m swimming pool; indoor cricket centre; pitches for hockey, football, rugby and cricket; and 9-court sports hall.

Development by Barratt and David Wilson Homes and Torus will begin when the new school campus is operational.

Homes England’s intervention in the King’s School site has also facilitated the development of housing by Bellway at the school’s former Westminster Road campus. Future development is to be brought forward by McCarthy and Stone at Westminster Road, alongside Bellway, and the refurbishment of listed buildings on the Cumberland Street campus by Hillcrest Homes.

This project is a great example of the important role housing and construction can play as part of a wider economic response to Covid-19, creating jobs, training opportunities, housing and local facilities across five separate sites in the town.

Stephen Kinsella, Chief Land and Development Officer at Homes England, said:

“This is a significant step forward for the development of Fence Avenue, where our innovative approach has demonstrated our ability to intervene in the market and unlock land for new homes, while facilitating the school’s ambitions for its new campus.

“We’re pleased to appoint Barratt and David Wilson Homes as the developer, who along with Torus will provide a range of homes for the people of Macclesfield, with a significantly higher proportion of affordable housing that originally anticipated.”

Robert Holbrook, Managing Director at Barratt and David Wilson Homes North West, said:

“We are delighted to be working in partnership with Homes England and Torus to deliver high quality new Homes in Macclesfield.

“We will be retaining the heritage of King’s School through the refurbishment of the main school building, which will be converted into apartments, complemented by the development of 273 new homes. The development will offer spacious homes alongside plenty of green spaces and local amenities, meaning it’s perfect for a variety of buyers.”

Chris Bowen, Managing Director of Torus Developments, continued:

“We’re passionate about building strong communities and giving people the opportunity to take that first step on the property ladder. By working closely with public bodies and national organisations, we are able to provide affordable homes, exactly where they’re needed, like never before.

“Being a strategic partner of Homes England is already paying dividends in terms of the land we can access and the assets we can unlock. Not only will this development see us bring new homes to Macclesfield, but also restore and transform Fence House.

“Torus has considerable experience of heritage projects and the sensitive redevelopment of listed buildings. We are excited to be leading on the regeneration and transformation of this landmark asset to provide truly affordable housing options to the people of Macclesfield, like our award-winning redevelopment of Odgen’s Tobacco Factory in Everton, Liverpool.”

Construction of the school’s new campus is on schedule and is set to be open for the 2020/21 academic year. Development by Barratt and David Wilson Homes and Torus will begin when the new school campus is operational.  

Homes England’s intervention in the King’s School site has also facilitated the development of housing by Bellway at the school’s former Westminster Road campus. Future development is to be brought forward by McCarthy and Stone at Westminster Road, alongside Bellway, and the refurbishment of listed buildings on the Cumberland Street campus by Hillcrest Homes.

Thank you Mr Chairman.

In his speech to the 1975 Helsinki Conference, the then UK Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, said that the Final Act would mean little if it were “not reflected in the daily lives of our people”. As we look forward and consider the future of the OSCE and European security, we should keep in mind the impact of what we do on the real lives of our citizens.

We should recognise the progress we have made since then in the OSCE area; but we cannot ignore the continuing, and in some areas increasing, threats to our security, prosperity and freedom and, worse still, the flagrant disregard for the very principles we set out in Helsinki and through the body of CSCE and OSCE agreements since then.

We talk about such violations here, every week when we call on Russia to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. We will do so again later today.

We need to see renewed commitment to the existing conventional arms control mechanisms and CSBMs. We want to see them functioning to their maximum potential, for the benefit of us all. Where they are implemented fully, in letter and in spirit, they increase transparency and trust, and reduce risk and room for misunderstanding and unintended escalation. Where there is selective implementation, exploitation of loopholes or application that is not in the spirit of the agreements, it degrades our instruments, reduces trust and increases risk.

Equally, we need to see real implementation of the commitments in the human dimension, and strengthening of the autonomous institutions in their work to promote the fundamental rights and freedoms that should apply to all our peoples.

Promotion of open dialogue relies not on formal structures in Vienna. We can’t speak openly when people in the OSCE region are unable to express their views freely, either through democratic elections, through peaceful assembly and association, or through the media. Providing space for civil society and free media to operate, online as well as offline, is essential if we want to have genuine dialogue and contacts between people. We must end the toxic use of disinformation to sow distrust and fear.

Genuine dialogue and engagement relies on a shared understanding of the principles and commitments we have agreed to and a determination to implement them fully. Respect for the existing commitments is fundamental. Trust and confidence cannot come through abstract discussion but through real acts in the real world. Without that, all we have are empty words.

Furloughed employees who are then made redundant will receive redundancy pay based on their normal wage, under new laws being brought in today (Thursday 30 July).

Throughout the pandemic, the government has urged businesses to do right by their employees and pay those being made redundant based on their normal wage, rather than their furlough pay, which is often less.

The majority of businesses have done so, however, there are a minority who have not.

Today the government will bring in legislation to protect workers and ensure all furloughed employees who are being made redundant receive their full entitlement.

Employees with more than 2 years’ continuous service who are made redundant are usually entitled to a statutory redundancy payment that is based on length of service, age and pay, up to a statutory maximum.

This legislation, which will come into force from tomorrow (Friday 31 July), will ensure that employees who are furloughed receive statutory redundancy pay based on their normal wages, rather than a reduced furlough rate.

Business Secretary Alok Sharma said:

The government is doing everything it can to protect people’s incomes through our Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which is now supporting over 9 million jobs across the UK.

We urge employers to do everything they can to avoid making redundancies, but where this is unavoidable it is important that employees receive the payments they are rightly entitled to.

New laws coming into force today will ensure furloughed workers are not short-changed if they are ever made redundant – providing some reassurance for workers and their families during this challenging time.

These changes will also apply to Statutory Notice Pay, which is where employees must be given a notice period before their employment ends, varying from at least one week’s notice up to 12 weeks’ notice, depending on how long they have worked for their employer. During this notice period, employees must be paid.

This legislation will also ensure that notice pay is based on normal wages rather than their wages under the CJRS.

Other changes coming into force will ensure basic awards for unfair dismissal cases are based on full pay rather than wages under the CJRS.

In March, the government established an unprecedented package of support for companies of all sizes across sectors, to protect businesses, jobs and incomes during the pandemic.

Through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme and the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, more than one million loans have been approved.

We have also introduced a new Job Retention Bonus to encourage firms to keep on furloughed workers, with a one-off payment of £1,000 being provided to UK employers for every furloughed employee who remains continuously employed through to the end of January 2021.

• an employee will be entitled to statutory redundancy pay if they have been working for their employer for 2 years or more
• the new legislation will ensure that pay received in relation to statutory redundancy pay is calculated based on an employee’s normal pay, rather than furlough pay (potentially 80% of their normal wage)
• calculating statutory redundancy pay for employees relies on inputting average weekly pay, alongside other factors such as length of continuous service and the employee’s age. Average weekly pay is usually worked out by adding the pay received over the 12 weeks up to when the employer notifies the employee they are being made redundant, and dividing by 12 to get the average. This legislation ensures that employers must treat any weeks an employer spent on furlough over the 12-week reference period as if they were working, and on full (100%) pay
• this legislation does not impact any enhanced redundancy pay that may be stipulated in the terms and conditions of an employee’s individual employment contract, but applies to basic statutory redundancy pay entitlements
• the legislation also covers other employment rights that rely on average weekly pay, including notice pay, unfair dismissal, and short-time working