Balfour Beatty has started work on an £11.6 million mixed-use residential project at Willow Walk in Southwark for Southwark Council.
The project involves the demolition of existing temporary residential accommodation to be replaced with a four-storey building fronting Willow Walk and Alscot Way.
The building will provide temporary accommodation in 54 bedrooms with shared kitchen and communal facilities. Another new four-storey building on Setchell Road will incorporate 21 council housing units.
Balfour Beatty will also create a new street through the development site, with an open public space, car parking, cycle racks and refuse facilities.
As part of its commitment to supporting the communities in which it works, Balfour Beatty will provide five jobs for non-working Southwark residents, as well as training two workers from the local area to a minimum of NVQ Level 1.
Southwark Council has committed to building 11,000 brand new council homes over the next 30 years. The Willow Walk development is the first to get underway as part of this ambitious plan.
Councillor Fiona Colley, Southwark Council’s cabinet member for regeneration, was on site on Friday to celebrate the start of works. She said: “This scheme, the first of an immense programme of construction, will not only create excellent, high quality council homes for those most in need, it will boost employment and contribute to reinvigorating London’s economy through house building.
"Southwark Council is a leading authority in regeneration and this is a tangible, proactive step towards fulfilling the promises made to the people of this borough – to ensure they see the full benefits and opportunities of regeneration with new homes, jobs and a better living environment. It is exciting to see the first significant numbers of council homes being built to be managed by Southwark Council for many years.”
Balfour Beatty’s Neil Patterson said: “We are delighted to have been given the opportunity, at the start of this ambitious development programme, to work with Southwark Council to provide new quality homes for residents in the Borough.”
Construction is expected to be complete by spring 2015.
