North Prospect regeneration shortlisted for major national development award

We’re delighted to share that Plymouth Community Homes (PCH) has been named as a finalist in the prestigious national Inside Housing Development Awards for its pivotal regeneration of North Prospect.

The £130m, 12-year scheme is shortlisted for the Best Regeneration Project award (500 homes and over) in recognition of the incredible impact this regeneration has had in transforming an entire community of Plymouth, leading to major reductions in crime and boosting employment opportunities and educational achievements for local people.

PCH has also won honours elsewhere in the awards shortlist this year, with its work in partnership with contractor Ian Williams to regenerate the former MoD estate at Hillcrest winning a place in the shortlist for Best Regeneration Project (under 100 homes).

The Inside Housing Development Awards celebrate the UK’s most outstanding residential developments over the past year, highlighting innovation in the social housing sector and the great work going on to deliver much-needed new affordable homes through the creation of sustainable communities.

Nick Jackson, Executive Director of Business Services & Development at PCH, said: “It is a real honour to be shortlisted at the Inside Housing awards as there is always strong competition from across the UK so even just to be named as a finalist is something for the organisation to be proud of, and a fitting tribute to the work the team has delivered over the last 15 years on the North Prospect regeneration. It’s also an honour for all our partners, particular PCC and Homes England, as well as the commercial developers who built the homes and the lending institutions that funded it.

“We’ve seen incredible outcomes from this scheme, with crime down in the area by 59%, and really high resident satisfaction, with more than 70% of residents choosing to move back into new homes in the area after the regeneration completed.

“It’s great to see PCH shortlisted for the Hillcrest regeneration as well following our work to invest in giving a new lease of life to this long-empty MoD estate, bringing 86 spacious 3-bed properties forward so they could be made available to local families in Plymouth waiting for a long-term affordable home.”

The Inside Housing nomination is the second major honour for the North Prospect regeneration this year, with the scheme recently scooping the Best Project and Best in Region awards at the regional Royal Town and Planning Institute Awards in June, and going forward to the national awards this autumn as a result.

The scheme will now be reviewed alongside all ‘Best in Region’ winners on a shortlist for the Best Project in the UK, with the winner announced at an awards ceremony in November.

The North Prospect regeneration is the largest scheme of its kind in the South West, and completed a year ago with a major celebration event held to mark the impact it had for Plymouth and the wider region.

Almost 800 damp and aging homes were demolished and more than 1,100 high quality, energy-efficient brand new homes were built, offering a wider variety of house types, sizes and tenures to completely revitalise the community.

After the completion of the five-phase scheme, 491 new homes had been made available for affordable and social rent, and 195 for purchase as shared ownership, whilst PCH refurbished a further 300 social rented homes.  Overall there was no loss of affordable housing on the estate.

The regeneration, delivered in partnership with Plymouth City Council and Homes England, also created a community hub with The Beacon, which opened in 2013.

The Hillcrest Close regeneration at Plympton was delivered in partnership with contractor Ian Williams and involved a £21.5m project, part funded by Homes England and Plymouth City Council, to refurbish the former Ministry of Defence (MOD) estate at Plympton, which included 86 three-bedroom homes, 80 garages and a community centre.

Residents started to move into the estate in August 2024.

The Inside Housing Development Awards take place in London on 25^th November with a ceremony held at the O2.