NEWS STORY

Two Fife housing associations have worked in partnership to deliver much needed new affordable homes for older and disabled people in Methil.  The project for Kingdom Housing Association at Methil Brae, Methil, Fife was designed and built by Robertson Partnership Homes as part of a larger development with Fife Council and has been designed by Sinclair Watt Architects.

The site is located on the northern fringe of the town and is bounded to the north by the River Leven where an area of derelict, brownfield land on the site of the former Glencast Foundry has been transformed into much-needed local housing.  An area of public open space has been created along the site's river frontage to accommodate the River Leven footpath link and to create an attractive and high-quality landscaped edge.

Twenty-three homes have been developed and built by Kingdom Housing Association and have been transferred into the ownership of Glen Housing Association who will have responsibility for their allocation, management and maintenance.

A large number of the new homes are being developed to meet particular needs, with 16 one and two-bedroom amenity and two two-bedroom properties designed to full wheelchair standard. The remaining five houses will provide one, two and three bedroom general needs homes.

Anne Dickie, Director with Glen Housing Association, said “Almost 80% of the properties are designed to meet the needs of older people or people who require wheelchair accessible housing and this is reflective of the needs in the area, where there is a shortage of specially designed homes.”

The £2.7 million project is partly funded by the Scottish Government, which provided £1.8 million in grant subsidy, and is being developed by Kingdom as part of the Fife Alliance Collaborative Working arrangement.

Ms Dickie continued “Glen is a relatively small housing association and, whilst we have the capacity to raise private funding for new projects, we do not employ our own development staff. The arrangement we have with Kingdom has worked very well for many years and meets our mutual objectives to help address housing needs in the area.”

Bill Banks, Kingdom’s Chief Executive, said “The Methil project is another successful example of how housing associations can work collaboratively to meet the housing needs in their areas of operation.  The 50,000 target for new affordable homes set by the Scottish Government will be challenging, however if housing associations pool resources and work together in partnership, we should be able to make a significant contribution to achieving the aims of the programme.”

Ten of the new homes were completed in April 2017 with the remaining thirteen being completed in June 2017.

The KLM Partnership provided Kingdom Housing Association with Employer’s Agent Services.