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They include 18 available for shared ownership, 26 for social rent and 6 as Rent to Buy homes.

Rent to Buy is a fairly new means of offering first-time buyers the opportunity to purchase a home with the assistance of subsidised rent. This enables people to save for a deposit so they can then buy the home they are renting. After renting for five years, tenants then purchase their home through the open market with a conventional mortgage. Applicants have to meet eligibility, affordability and sustainability requirements.

Jordan Jones and Leah Fontier who are purchasing through the Rent to Buy scheme say, “ We were looking for a two bed closer to family if anything. We’re up in Plymouth at the moment for university and then we both graduated so we wanted to move home. It was great because unfortunately covid really made us struggle to save for a deposit now so the Rent to Buy just made it much more accessible for us really.”

There are 50 new two and three bedroom houses and one bedroom flats set around a central open space area which gives a lovely, spacious feel to the development. The traditionally built homes of varying design offer a great range of affordable housing options.

Proud new shared owner, Will Boucher, says, “I came to find the property just by being a local lad in the area. It caught my eye. This property is absolutely brilliant, definitely what I need and I’m really looking forward to it. My brother will be only about two or three doors down so it’s good because he’s going to be close by.”

The properties are built by regional award-winning construction firm Ryearch. The land was formerly owned by a local family and the homes are provided with funding from Homes England.

Environmental protection features include the establishment of a wildlife corridor, for the benefit of dormice and other local wildlife, with work carried out under licence from Natural England. The site is surrounded by a number of established trees which have been retained as far as possible and that’s meant a number of tree protection measures during construction which has made for a picturesque environment.

Westward’s Director of Development, Rachel Searle, said, “This was an exciting opportunity for Westward to work on a major site and make a huge difference to local people in terms of their housing options.”

First photo (l to r): Leah Fontier – new rent to buy home owner, Hayley Rossiter – Westward home ownership services Manager, Jordan Jones - new rent to buy home owner.

Second photo (l to r): Martin Haynes – partner architect at Ayres Haynes, Dave Gogola – Contract Manager at Ryearch, Mark Wildman - managing director at Ryearch, Rob Wakeham – employer’s agent at Taylor Lewis, Karen Hulbert – project delivery manager at Westward, Rachel Searle – director of development at Westward, Jon Mutter – development manager at Westward, Anthony Bassett – director at Taylor Lewis, Chetna Tucker – development officer at Westward, Kay Cooper – development coordinator at Westward, Mike Jory – site manager at Ryearch.