New social housing development in Swannington welcomes first residents

Ten new homes have been created in the village of Swannington, Broadland.

A £1.6m social housing development by Clarion Housing Group, Britain’s biggest housing association, in the village of Swannington, Broadland, has welcomed its first residents.

The new Wensum Valley View development occupies a 0.45 hectare plot of land and was built by King’s Lynn firm T.M. Browne over the past year. It is providing homes for a number of local people.

There were previously four Clarion homes on the site which has now been redeveloped to provide ten new homes in total – two semi-detached one-bedroom bungalows, two semi-detached one-bedroom houses, three semi-detached two-bedroom houses and three semi-detached three-bedroom houses.

All the homes are for social rent. This is significantly cheaper than the average rents charged by private landlords and is calculated using a formula set by government.

The residents began moving into their new homes in February and the new development is now fully occupied.

“I am so happy to finally have a home of my own in a place I am already familiar with. I feel very fortunate.” - Joseph, Swannington resident

One of the new residents, Joseph, lived with his parents in the village before moving into his new home last month. The 31-year-old could not afford to live independently before but can now thanks to the low rents on the new homes.

“I had been dreaming about having my own place for a very long time, but everything seemed to be against me. I am so happy to finally have a home of my own in a place I am already familiar with. I feel very fortunate,” he said.

Clarion’s group director of development, Richard Cook, said:

“Through careful consideration of the site and how it could be maximised, this new development is providing much-needed additional social housing in the area, exclusively for people with a local connection to the area."

“It builds on our commitment to Broadland, where we already have more than 4,000 existing homes. We hope the residents will be very happy in their new community for years to come.”