Almshouses for young people in Surrey

The Almshouse Association was honoured to be invited to the opening ceremony of new almshouses built by The Poland Trust to house younger people in housing need

The Poland Trust is a charity based in Brockham, Surrey originally set up by Sidney Michael Poland who lived in the village and supported many village organisations during his lifetime and arranged for the charity to be established after his death.

In the 1950s the first trustees built six almshouses and a warden’s flat for villagers in hardship, need or distress on land left by Mr Poland. Since then four more units have been built at Poland House but there was no further space at that beautiful site just under Box Hill.

Fifteen years ago the trustees decided that the elderly in Brockham and the three surrounding villages of Betchworth, Buckland and Leigh were well served by available accommodation but that there was a need for affordable housing for a younger generation.

It took twelve years to find a suitable site in an area of outstanding natural beauty in the greenbelt until a local landowner offered the Trust a corner of one of his fields which enabled the real work to start.

Negotiations began with Mole Valley District Council for the site to be designated as a Rural Exception Site for planning purposes and the Council provided a significant grant for the project which will provide homes for applicants from their Housing List with a connection to the the villages. The site is large enough for twelve homes for almshouse residents and five self-build plots which the Trust has sold at 75% of market value to local residents with a covenant that they can only be sold on at 80% of market value and have to be offered to people in the local community.

A local Brockham architect drew plans which would provide four one-bed flats in a single almshouse building; two one-bed houses, five two-bed houses and one three-bed house in a courtyard for the almshouse dwellings; and five detached houses for the self-build plots all of which reflect the rural nature of this very sensitive area.

The trustees selected Scandia-Hus Ltd of East Grinstead as the builder as their timber-frame construction system provides high levels of insulation and should be low maintenance which is important for future generations of trustees. Scandia-Hus understood from the outset what the trustees were trying to achieve and have proved to be extremely good partners. From the architect’s plans which were used to obtain planning permission they agreed a fixed price contract with the trustees which included all the detailed drawings needed together with all the groundworks as well as the building work. This helped with the financial control of the project especially during a period of increasing material costs.

Financing the project is a combination of the grant from Mole Valley District Council, the sale of the self-build plots, the Trust’s own resources and a loan from CAF Bank. A large amount of money was spent before anything appeared out of the ground which was frustrating at the time, not least because a sophisticated flood alleviation scheme had to be incorporated in the design, but overall the project stayed close to the original expectations.

“The Almshouse Association was helpful to the trustees in persuading Mole Valley District Council that the twelve units owned by the charity should be almshouses rather than the rented accommodation with which the Council is more familiar and it helps the charity for all of its housing to be under the almshouse umbrella.”

As the project nears completion, the trustees are both happy and relieved that they have been able to create an asset for the local community in perpetuity and one of which they believe Mr Poland would approve.

Posted 3 October 22