20/10/20
Innovative housing solutions that will provide high quality, sustainable homes for families experiencing homelessness are on their way to Cardiff.

The Council is working with Beattie Passive to quickly increase the city's supply of temporary accommodation with new high quality, high performance homes to cater for homeless families.

Beattie Passive will be creating 48 new modular homes for the city, with their state of the art Haus4 builds at the Gasworks site in Grangetown. The scheme, which is subject to planning permission, will deliver 48 modular-build one, two and three-bedroom flats that will provide temporary homes for families while a more permanent housing solution is found.

Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities, Cllr Lynda Thorne, said: "The Council is extremely pleased to be working with Beattie Passive to provide innovative and sustainable solutions to help tackle housing need in the city.

"We've made excellent progress in supporting people who've been homeless over the last few months and our vision for services for the future is now taking shape very quickly. Beattie Passive's modular solutions provide a fast and effective response for our plans, including provision for a potential increase in family homelessness.

"The flexibility of this fully demountable system means they can be moved elsewhere in the future if required, enabling us to respond to changing housing need over time."

Beattie Passive's innovative modular system lifts building standards to a new level. All of the new homes at the Gasworks site will meet Passivhaus standards, the gold standard of energy-efficient buildings, reducing heating requirements, thereby helping to lift residents out of fuel poverty.

The timber-framed units, built for a 60+ year lifespan, are manufactured off-site using sustainable materials with a low carbon footprint, and delivered to site for installation. The homes deliver high levels of sound, fire, flood and radon protection.

Ron Beattie, Managing Director, Beattie Passive, said: "We are delighted to be working with Cardiff Council to deliver this much needed scheme for families experiencing homelessness in Cardiff. Our Passivhaus standard modular housing will be manufactured offsite and once in location will deliver high quality, high performance temporary homes for these families. The modular apartments will be certified by the Passivhaus Institute to Passive Plus Standard, lifting the standard of modular housing."

The 29 acre former gas works on Ferry Road in Grangetown was acquired by the Council earlier this year for inclusion in its ambitious housing development programme. The Council intends to deliver mixed tenure development of up to 500 new homes on the site as part of its target of delivering 2,000 new homes in Cardiff, 1,000 of which will be completed by 2022.

Beattie Passive's units on the site will offer good quality, family accommodation. Support staff will be on site during the day, while other provision such as Early Help family services, health visiting and parenting support will also be available.

Welsh Government has provisionally agreed to provide funding for the Gasworks scheme, as part of a multi-million pound package announced over the summer to tackle homelessness across Wales.

Welsh Government Minister for Housing and Local Government, Julie James, said: "Welsh Government is a great supporter of factory-built houses and these new 50 family homes are a prime example of a high quality, innovative and sustainable housing solutions for families experiencing homelessness.

"The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the importance of a warm, safe, secure and affordable home like never before. We are committed to working with partners like Cardiff Council to ensure nobody is forced into homelessness and to ensure we have a supply of homes and support services to end homelessness for good."