Brent Housing Project Celebrates Construction Progress

On Monday 9th November, the Hyde Group's Brent Coefficient (BCE) - which has been appointed by Brent Council to deliver the Brent PFI (Private Finance Initiative) housing project -celebrated the scheme's progress with a groundbreaking ceremony on the largest site at Empire Way, Wembley.

Phase One involves the design and construction, management and maintenance of 195 affordable new homes for homeless families in the borough, with an additional 20 homes for people with learning difficulties to be built for management and maintenance by Brent Council. Work has already begun on five of the scheme's nine sites.

Phase Two is currently being negotiated with a view to delivering up to an additional 185 new homes.

The PFI project, funded through Barclays Bank and Nord Landesbank, will help Brent Council address the shortage of suitable housing for homeless families, reduce reliance on bed and breakfast accommodation, and modernise residential care services for people with learning difficulties.

BCE will deliver the project through contracts with Bouygues UK and its sister company Warings (design and build contractors), Ian Williams Ltd (facilities management contractor) and The Hyde Group (housing management contractor).

Councillor James Allie, Brent Council's Lead Member for Housing and
Customer Services, said: "It's excellent to see so much progress being made
on this project so quickly. Affordable housing is desperately needed in
Brent and we're pleased to be working with our partners to provide new
homes for some of the borough's most vulnerable residents."

Steve Wicks, Director of BCE said: “We're fully committed to delivering quality homes and services to Brent Council and helping to bring positive change to the local community. We're therefore thrilled to be here to mark the progress already made in this truly exciting project. ”

Madani Sow, Chairman of Bouygues UK and Warings said: “This housing project is extremely important for the residents of Brent so we are very pleased to have made such excellent progress on the scheme which is on track to complete in Autumn 2011. This is a great start for our first social housing PFI and an important milestone for the future development of Bouygues UK.”