Work starts on Seaham Garden Village

Esh Construction has begun a first phase of 750 homes on the County Durham coast, where it is working with affordable homers provider Karbon Homes.

The 750 affordable homes being delivered will ultimately form half of the 1,500 homes planned for the new community.

Taylor Wimpey and Miller Homes are delivering the market sale part of the masterplan. The garden village will also include a primary school, convenience retail and health and wellbeing facilities.

Around 50% of the garden village will be dedicated to managed green space, with more than three miles of landscaped paths and cycle routes.

Sarah Robson, director of development and regeneration at Karbon Homes, said the project will “not only be an exciting new location in County Durham but also one of the few garden villages being delivered in the North East”.

She added: “We’re pleased to announce Esh Construction as our construction partner for the first phase of this scheme. We have worked well together elsewhere to deliver good quality, affordable homes, and we look forward to seeing progress on this site and new homes becoming available later in the year.”

The first homes from Karbon will become available towards the end of the year, for both affordable rent and affordable home ownership options, shared ownership and rent to buy.

Andy Radcliffe, chief executive officer at Esh Construction, said: “With a spade in the ground on the first phase, this marks a key milestone in our strategic growth plans as we capitalise on a number of major project wins within the affordable housing sector and help registered providers deliver more quality, much-needed affordable homes.”

The 192-acre garden village is located off the A182 heading into Seaham town centre. Karbon is aiming to build all of its 750 homes to net zero carbon, with technologies including solar PV panels and battery storage units.

Delivery of Karbon’s 750 homes is supported by funding from Homes England, through the housing association’s strategic partnership with the government’s housing delivery agency.

The strategic partnership has provided Karbon with £165m in funding, to deliver 2,200 new affordable homes across the North East and Yorkshire over the next few years.