Breathing new life into old places
The weekend interview Richard Cook of Clarion Housing Group is transforming disused land in Leeds and York into places to live, writes Deputy Business Editor, Greg Wright.
IT’S A factory linked with the very best Victorian values, built around thrift, hard work and philanthropy.
The vast, disused site in York will soon lose its ghostly silence as it becomes a place to live and work. Richard Cook, the group development director at Clarion Housing Group, is determined to ensure that the former Rowntree Factory plays its part in easing the housing crisis.
Mr Cook leads the group’s development arm, Latimer, which is transforming the old factory on York’s Haxby Road into a new community called The Cocoa Works. Most locals believe this development is overdue. The factory, built by Joseph Rowntree in the early 1890s, has been empty for more than a decade.
“The Cocoa Works in York is a unique scheme for our business on an iconic site which has huge regional and even global significance,” said Mr Cook.
“We have a wonderful opportunity as a business to reimagine a modern community, incorporating homes, gardens and communal spaces, continuing the legacy left by the former Rowntree factory and family.”
The development is due to be completed in 2022. Like Joseph Rowntree, Clarion’s founder William Sutton was an entrepreneur and philanthropist who cared deeply about the concept of community.
“He gifted his entire fortune into philanthropic trusts to improve the quality of social housing and, by doing so, he created the company that would eventually be known as Clarion,” said Mr Cook.
“To this day we continue this practice by reinvesting profits into supporting residents and building communities that people love to live in – which is exactly what we are planning for The Cocoa Works.
“We’re also going to restore the old Joseph Rowntree Memorial Library at the front of the development which has been left in a state of disrepair for many years.
“This will become a new residents’ lounge complete with a concierge, shared workspaces and even a café with an outside pavilion so it will once again be at the heart of this new community which will become a superb destination in which to live and work.”
He added: “We are also committed to delivering employment opportunities and social value in the local area, and will create around 200 jobs during the building work and beyond as we bring people in to ensure the smooth day- to- day running of The Cocoa Works.”
Clarion also acquired a 13- acre acre brownfield site between the River Aire and Kirkstall Road in Leeds in August, which has planning permission for a residential mixed- use scheme incorporating around 1,000 homes and student accommodation.
Mr Cook said: “We’re working with architects Broadway Malyan to create a redesign to completely regenerate this area, creating a wider sense of community and broad mixture of tenures for residents including affordable housing, student housing and rented options. We’re also looking to reinstate a bridge across the River Aire for greater connectivity across the city district.
“Yorkshire is a key area of growth for us and we want to make areas like our Kirkstall Road site so much more than just much- needed housing.
“We’ll be looking to underpin this development with a range of community arts and cultural facilities.”
Mr Cook is also committed
to providing shared ownership tenures on the company’s developments.
He added: “It’s about opening up viable affordable options for people wanting to get on the housing ladder. The lack of affordable housing across Yorkshire’s cities has been widely documented, which is why we want to provide high- quality options for those who couldn’t ordinarily afford to live in these locations.”
Shared ownership offers buyers a route to home ownership with smaller and more
manageable deposits. It allows prospective buyers to purchase a portion of the value of the property, and pay rent on the rest until they feel ready to buy a greater equity share.
“Like everybody we were immediately affected by the speed of lockdown back in spring, but very quickly our business adapted to remote working and using technology much more effectively,” he said.
“Now all of our sites, show homes and marketing suites are open, following Government guidelines of course, and we’ve
definitely benefited from the recent surge in demand for new homes, across both private sale and shared ownership.
“The feedback we are receiving from the market is that, with home working much more commonplace, access to green spaces and quality home design is key so we’re delivering these across our sites.
“Quality place making has never been more important and underpins the Latimer offer, as people seek out places they can successfully live, socialise and work.”
Mr Cook added: “Our ambition is to be building 4,000 homes a year across the UK. We will be close to doubling in size over next five years in order to achieve this. In terms of strategic growth and development, Yorkshire and the North of England is an area we are serious about investing in. In fact, ahead of Christmas, we hope to be making another couple of major announcements on new land acquisitions.”
This type of business planning would have surely earned a nod of approval from the wise, driven Joseph Rowntree.
Our ambition is to be building 4,000 homes a year across the UK.