Severn Vale Housing Society recently took ownership of 4 bungalows and 4 houses at Gardener’s Rest in Cashes Green, Stroud, all built by local builders, Aqua Construction, to the Code for Sustainable Homes, ensuring minimal use of energy and reduced harmful emissions.
The land was bought in January 2010 by Aqua Construction Ltd, who modified the design on the existing planning permission for 4 bungalows and 4 houses to meet The Code for Sustainable Homes. This enabled them to sell it on to Severn Vale Housing Society with a full Design & Build Contract. Work on the project started in February and, a whole month ahead of schedule the finished homes were handed over.
Thanks to expert business advice from local accountants, Randall & Payne, Aqua Construction have managed, even in these testing times, to carry on building, developing and growing. Based in Stroud, Gloucester and Cheltenham, Randall & Payne were on hand to offer advice about the financial and regulatory side and, as Richard says “they are always very helpful with advice when we need them, for example, we are about to purchase some land and the transaction is not straight forward. We consulted with Will Abbott from Randall & Payne and between us came up with a solution.”
As Will Abbott said: “ We help businesses identify target markets and drivers, identify competitive advantages and help them with business performance management and reviews, to enable them to work in a more focussed and streamlined fashion and work to their strengths. As long as we know what they want to achieve, we can help them to get there.”
Richard Draper from Aqua Construction said: “We have done several projects like this. We fitted solar panels in Thrupp (8 new flats), a ground source heat pump in Park End Road Gloucester (14 new flats which won a Civic award for ‘Best Climate Friendly Scheme’ 2010) and at Gardener’s Rest we have fitted air source heat pumps – all very efficient.”
So far the Government, through the Homes & Communities Agency (HCA), has provided funding towards sustainable housing projects, providing they meet the code. Projects are carefully monitored throughout and, at completion, certificates are issued as proof that all aspects of the code have been met. With climate change a major concern, there is a need for new homes to be built in a sustainable way and the code measures this, rating the ‘whole home’ as a complete package. Low carbon emissions, water conservation and effective insulation are some of the key areas to meeting the code.
Contact Will Abbott at Randall & Payne, Gloucester on Tel: 01452 723899 |
