News New homes will create new, vibrant

More new residential schemes, set to open more opportunities for people to live, work, shop and play in Stockport town centre, have been given the green light or are already underway.

At a time when towns and cities throughout the UK are planning to reinvent themselves to attract users back to the High Street and main centres, Stockport is attracting *national media attention, being recognised as a trailblazer, by adapting and forging ahead with ambitious plans to create a sustainable town centre, fit for present and future generations to enjoy.

Multi-generational community living, and amenities will transform the former St Thomas’ Hospital

An historic building being saved is the former St Thomas’ Hospital. Originally built in 1841, the Grade II listed building will be repurposed to create a multi-generational town centre neighbourhood.

St Thomas’ Gardens will include 67 affordable new homes and an exemplar, intermediate care facilityThe Academy of Living Well - integrating health and social care.

The Academy of Living Well will support those transitioning between the hospital and the home.

Knightsbridge

Developers, Amstone Ventures, are to build more than 500 new homes, a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom flats as well as three-bedroom family town houses, on the site of the former Sainsbury’s store in the heart of the town centre.

The £100m scheme will open the riverside for pedestrian access to the river Goyt and create a new public space.

Underground parking facilities at the store will be repurposed to provide parking for residents via a new access road to avoid increasing traffic through the town centre itself.

Stockport has been hailed as one of the best places to live in the UK and one of seven Best Places to Live in the Northwest, according to the annual Sunday Times ‘Best Places to Live’ guide. Read more on page 27

King Street West

Great Places Housing Group are bringing forward a development of 73 rent-to-buy apartments on King Street West in Stockport’s Town Centre West regeneration district. An existing car wash site and van depot between King Street West and Bann Street and Gradwell Street will be demolished and replaced with the four-storey apartment block.

The £16.4 million development forms part of the Stockport Mayoral Development Corporation’s (MDC) Town Centre West regeneration area, which looks to form a new gateway in the town centre with 3,500 homes and more than 1 million sq ft of commercial space.

The one- and two-bedroom flats would be made available via the government-backed ‘Rent to Buy’ programme, which sees tenants given the option to save towards a deposit to purchase their home by reducing the rent for five years. The proposals are being supported with funding from Homes England and seeks to compliment other proposed developments in the area by adding high-quality affordable homes to the mix.

Great Places’ scheme sits in Stockport MDC’s proposed Brinksway sustainability-focused neighbourhood that will take advantage of excellent nearby transport links at Stockport Railway Station and bus interchange (due to complete in 2024).