The multi-million pound transformation of a former nursery site in the Forest of Dean is just weeks away from completion, with the first customers already moving onto site.

We've invested £6.6m in the Southend Nurseries site, Southend Lane, on the southern outskirts of Newent which is the first site we've developed in the district. Through partners EG Carter, one of four developers on the Bromford Construction Partnership (BCP), a total of 36 new affordable homes for rent have been built with the final work due to finish ahead of schedule by the end of November.

The brownfield land had laid empty for a number of years until Forest of Dean District Council granted planning permission in July 2020. Before construction work could begin, a number of old greenhouses and outbuildings were removed in order to clear the site.

Work on the new affordable homes, which used £1.3m of funding from our existing strategic partnership with Homes England, was originally due to be completed in early 2022 but construction has progressed ahead of schedule. The first residents moved in at the end of September with 27 of the homes now already occupied.

Alice Phillips, project manager at Bromford, said: “We’re thrilled to see this development meeting local demand for affordable housing with the first customers already moving into these brand new, modern homes. The site will be fully complete by the end of the month which is well ahead of schedule and is testament to the strong partnership we have with EG Carter.

“We own more than 10,000 homes across Gloucestershire and we are aiming to build a further 6,000 in the county over the next eight years, which was strengthened even further recently with the extension of our Homes England partnership. We are keen to work with contractor partners across our entire geography to deliver our ambitious housebuilding programme and provide people who can’t access market housing with a safe, secure, and warm home.”

EG Carter associate director, Mathew Vye, added: “We are delighted to have worked in partnership with Bromford on this E G Carter land led opportunity, securing planning permission for this affordable housing development in Newent and successfully delivering these new homes in a timely and efficient manner. The whole project has been a fantastic advertisement for collaborative working, having created a strong collective team structure from planning and pre-contract, and onto site for the delivery phase. We hope the new residents enjoy their new homes and being part of the local community.”

We are one of the largest housebuilding housing associations in the country and in September we extended our strategic partnership with Homes England after successfully securing an additional £240m worth of government funding. Our aim is to build around 12,000 new affordable homes throughout the West of England and West Midlands over the next eight years.