Aerial Map of the My North Town renewal area

My North Town is a seven year Neighbourhood Renewal Project proposed by Pavilion Housing Association, and in partnership with Rushmoor Borough Council. The aim is to transform and improve the Pavilion housing stock in the North Town area for the benefit of its residents, the wider community and future generations.

The renewal area

The aerial photograph clearly shows the area that the My North Town regeneration project plans to renew (outlined in orange). Included in this area is the parade of shops with flats above and the North Town Base. There is also a sheltered housing scheme and nearby older people’s accommodation totalling around 35 residents and there are around 40 leasehold flats on the estate that belong to private owners.

All of the affected residents and community groups have received a letter from Pavilion Housing Association and copies of  newsletters and leaflets about the project and how they can get involved in the consultation phase. In addition, they have been invited to individual meetings with Pavilion Housing Association staff to discuss their housing needs and answer any urgent questions.

Pavilion Housing Association is part of the First Wessex Housing Group which has experience of previous regeneration schemes of this scale. It also has the support of the Government’s Homes & Communities Agency and Rushmoor Borough Council.

The project funding is available from three sources: grants from the Government’s Homes & Communities Agency ; private sector finance and from First Wessex Housing Group’s own resources.

The funding will enable complete replacement of the existing 500 homes, with the potential to develop a further 200 homes in a future phase. The final scheme, called the MasterPlan, will be prepared following widespread consultation with the local community and this starts today.

This means that all of the current homes will be replaced with new homes at affordable rents. If any additional homes are built, a proportion of these will also be for affordable rent or shared ownership. There will also be homes to buy.

This large-scale regeneration project will transform the estate over seven years and as well as replacing the existing blocks of flats, will also see the shops redeveloped. No areas are to be refurbished.

The North Town Estate has a strong sense of community and residents generally enjoy living there. However, it was built in the 1950s and whilst the existing flats are structurally sound, they do not meet current standards in terms of heat loss and insulation. We want to provide residents with modern homes which are economical to heat and enjoy good sound insulation. We want to bring improvements that will benefit our residents as well as the wider community.

A large number of residents have told us in previous consultations that they would also prefer to live in individual houses with gardens. At the moment, there are not enough family homes and little scope in the current design to provide traditional garden layouts.

With this project, we aim to be able to provide a greater mix of housing, both more variety of sizes of homes and different types of ownership, such as general needs rented, shared ownership and private ownership.

All the homes will be built to the latest modern design and environmental standards. My North Town’s aim is to strengthen the existing community and provide buildings suitable for the next generation – comfortable, economical, eco-friendly homes with a mix of types of houses with courtyard communities and gardens.

Our commitment

We will ensure that every current resident can remain in North Town if they want to. We will divide the estate into zones and work on these one at a time. As far as possible we will move residents once only, from their current homes into new homes in completed zones. But there may still be some residents who we will have to house temporarily off the estate until we can move them back into a completed home. Of course, there may be some residents who will take this opportunity to move off the estate altogether.
Hazel Warwick, Group Regeneration & Development Director for First Wessex Housing Group