On Friday 5 August, Workington MP Mark Jenkinson visited the construction site of our new retirement living scheme on Lawson Street in Workington, which will deliver 107 affordable homes with on-site care and facilities including a community café and hair and beauty salon.
During the visit, Mark Jenkinson MP buried a time capsule created by Year 6 pupils from Beckstone Primary School in Salterbeck, Workington, with their predictions of what life will be like in 50 years time, when the time capsule will be dug up on 5 August 2072.
Along with drawings of flying cars and glass phones, pupils submitted predictions of a “healthier world” and a “better environment.” The capsule also included information about their favourite food and music, as well as small items such as copies of the local newspapers, to provide future generations with an insight into life in 2022.
All the homes at Harbour Place will be built to EPC B rating using modern construction methods. The extra care complex will feature a steel framework which is a nod to Workington’s industrial past as one of the great producers of steel.
The £19million project, which received £8million grant funding as part of Homes England’s Affordable Housing Programme, will transform a brownfield site which has been disused since the 1970s into a thriving area for people to live and work, creating hundreds of new jobs in construction and boosting the local economy.
The retirement living scheme will offer a mix of self-contained homes with care for the local community who have care and support needs. This includes 79 apartments for people with extra care needs, 28 affordable rent bungalows for people aged over 55.
Workington MP Mark Jenkinson said:
“This important project will help meet affordable housing demands and provide homes for those with care and support needs. I look forward to seeing building work gathering pace over the next two years, culminating in an extra care scheme for Workington, complete with a community café and hair and beauty salon.
“At the same time, this will create jobs, bring a brownfield site back into use, and help address a growing demand for housing support and care in our community.
“It is really encouraging to see a major development of this type in Workington.”
Work on site began in April 2022 and is due to be complete by October 2024. It has been estimated by Lichfield that over its lifetime the development will potentially support 378 direct jobs, 296 indirect jobs as well as 570 indirect jobs created in the supply chain and economy.
Once Harbour Place is operational, it is estimated around 40 full-time equivalent roles will be created, the majority of which will deliver care and support to customers.
Andrea Thorn, Riverside’s Director of Homes & Communities, said:
“We enjoyed welcoming MP Mark Jenkinson to our new Harbour Place development which will offer much needed affordable homes with on-site care and fantastic communal facilities.
“With a quarter of Allerdale’s population over 65, this scheme will support people with growing housing support and care needs within the community.
“We are pleased to be fulfilling a pledge that we made to Impact Housing, and the local area, when they joined the Riverside Group four years ago by renovating a disused site into a high-quality development which will benefit the local community.”
Further information about the development is available on our website here