A MULTI-MILLION pound regeneration project is continuing apace at a rundown part of Bradford city centre.

The second phase of the development in Chain Street, once dubbed death row because of its decaying state, has seen 32 homes built on the site of outdated blocks of flats.

It comprises of ten three-bedroom homes for affordable rent through social landlord Incommunities, 12 homes for private rental from housing provider QSH and ten for sale through Barnfield Construction.

The homes are being built by Barnfield Construction on behalf of Incommunities.

The development is backed by Bradford Council and the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) which has pumped in a grant of £234,000.

The Incommunities homes are scheduled to be completed by the end of March this year.

The other sections of the latest stage of the redevelopment project, which began in April last year with a 'ground-breaking ceremony', will be completed by June 2015.

The project's first phase, built in 2013 through Incommunities, Bradford Council and the Homes and Communities Agency, saw 36 outdated flats off Chain Street and Roundhill Place remodelled into 16 larger homes. For this stage of the project, Incommunities converted two blocks of these hard-to-let bedsits.

The former eyesore area had once become the haunt of prostitutes, drunks and drug users.

In 2011, Incommunities secured a £960,000 grant from the Government’s Homes and Communities Agency for the Roundhill Place and Chain Street development, as well as an additional £100,000 from the Council’s Empty Properties Programme.

The cash funded the demolition of the derelict U-shaped block of flats, which took four weeks to complete in 2012, the refurbishment of two blocks and contributed to the building of the first ten affordable homes.

Incommunities has previously said the Chain Street redevelopment is a key scheme.

The mixed tenure development will mark the next stage in the transformation of the Goitside Conservation Area.

Jez Lester, Incommunities' assistant chief executive, asset management, said: "The development of this key brownfield site demonstrates our commitment to deliver more affordable homes for local people.

"We are delighted to be working with the Homes and Communities Agency, Bradford Council and our development partners - Barnfield Construction and QSH - on this new phase.

"The completed scheme will complement our recent high-quality home conversions off Chain Street and continue the transformation of the historic Goitside quarter."

Councillor Val Slater, Bradford Council's executive member for Housing, Transport and Planning, said: "The good progress on site marks an important stage in the regeneration of the Goitside area and the wider city centre.

"This scheme promises to deliver more affordable homes for local people."

David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, praised the Chain Street project during a visit last year.

He said: “I get around the country and I see lots and lots of these.

"The imagination that has gone into this regeneration project is fantastic.”

The Chain Street scheme is the latest of a host of housing development schemes completed by Incommunities across the district.

These include in Manningham, Thorpe Edge, Greengates, Odsal and Queensbury.

This will see a total of 346 homes built over the next three years.

Incommunities was given the all-clear in March last year to build 64 new homes on brownfield land off Green Lane, Manningham, Bradford.

Most of the two, three and four-bedroom homes will be rented out to its tenants, but 16 of the four-bedroom homes will be sold to private buyers.

The 1.8-hectare site was previously occupied by ten blocks of 1960s maisonettes, which have been demolished over the last five years.

In Thorpe Edge, a site between Greystone Crescent and Sandholme Drive, previously blighted by quad bikes and nuisance cars, will feature semi-detached homes which will be rented out as social housing.

They are designed to be energy efficient and tackle fuel poverty. The original flats on the site were demolished in 2008.

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