Newbury - Progress made with Parkway affordable housing

[Administrator]

Newbury - Progress is being made with the affordable housing at Parkway.

Progress continues to be made with the Parkway affordable housing as Standard Life Investments and West Berkshire Council agree the way forward on a number of outstanding matters.

Last month contracts were exchanged between Standard Life Investments and One Housing Group. Since then work has continued and is now nearing completion which will allow the transfer of the freehold from West Berkshire Council to Standard Life Investments and trigger the agreement for the Council to receive its share of income from the car park.

All the parties involved in the discussions are committed to concluding the matter as soon as possible. The Council has also agreed that given recent progress and agreement on how to move forward it will now sign off the leases of those who have already exchanged contracts to purchase a property at Parkway

Commenting on the agreement Cllr Gordon Lundie, Leader of West Berkshire Council, said: "There have been significant frustrations with the delay in the delivery of the affordable housing in recent months. It is important that we now work with our partners Standard Life Investments to ensure that everyone benefits from the huge success of the Parkway Development."

David Stewart, Fund Manager, Standard Life Investments, said: "We are delighted that the Council has now resumed signing leases for the sale of some of the private homes at Parkway. For these Newbury residents it will be a welcome end to the unnecessarily protracted delay that, as we have consistently said, has been beyond Standard Life Investments' control."