A 175-home retirement village in Hornchurch in east London is a step closer to becoming reality after it was approved by Havering Council’s strategic planning committee.
The plans will now be considered by the Mayor of London before a final decision is issued.
Joint venture partners Havering Council and Wates Residential submitted plans last November for a retirement village to replace a former sheltered accommodation site.
All of the new homes will be designed to fully meet the needs and aspirations of local people who are approaching, or who have reached, retirement age.
Eighty of the new homes will be for affordable rent, with the remainder split between shared ownership and open market sale.
The scheme has been designed to bring people together, with the aim of tackling social isolation and ensuring that residents can stay active and healthy for longer.
Plans include communal facilities such as a residents’ lounge and a treatment studio for health and wellness, which may be used by council support services, GPs or other NHS services to provide on-site support for some residents’ routine healthcare needs.
There will also be flexible storage space for either bicycles or mobility scooters and all homes will also benefit from solar PV panels to help keep service charges at an affordable cost for local people.
The site is one of 12 included in the ’12 Estates’ regeneration programme, which will see around 3,500 homes delivered by the joint venture partners in Havering over the next 12 to 15 years.
“Our impressive proposals mean that our new retirement village will allow our older Havering residents to live fulfilling, independent lives in a state-of-the-art community, and to also access the holistic support they might need in later life,” said Having Council leader Damian White.
