Former offices on Bedford Road to be turned into affordable flats

Northampton Partnership Homes (NPH), which runs the council’s housing stock, has been negotiating with the owners of Riverside House with a view to the borough council purchasing the building.

The building is owned by Barwood Capital, which has already been granted planning permission to convert the four upper floors of the building into 60 apartments (made up of 16 one-bedroom and 44 two-bedroom). The bottom floor is currently occupied by a dialysis company.

On Wednesday (May 20), members of the council’s cabinet agreed for the authority to purchase and redevelop the building.

Councillor Stephen Hibbert, the Conservative cabinet member for housing, said: “At full council meetings I’ve hinted often when we talk about housing about projects that were coming through and that I hoped to bring to cabinet. During lockdown, the leader signed off on the turnkey acquisition of Beamount House, and today we are bringing a full report on Riverside House which is a similar sort of scheme.

“Riverside House gives us a chance to bring back into use an office block. It’s a five-storey development – the ground floor is occupied by tenants. There is some doubt about how long they will stay with us as tenants because the lease is up fairly shortly, but we have a good relationship with them through NPH and I do expect the dialogue to continue and indeed, as we develop the project, NPH will be doing all in their powers to minimise disruption to them.”

It is hoped if contracts are exchanged in July that the development would be able to start in December 2020 and will take approximately 15 months to complete, though the timeline is dependent on coronavirus.

The scheme will have 127 parking spaces, of which 90 will be designated for the tenants in the apartments and the remainder will be designated for the Renal Unit on the ground floor.

The scheme was also welcomed by opposition parties. Labour leader Councillor Danielle Stone said: “I just wanted to register my absolute delight at projects like this. I think it’s really important that we take every opportunity to invest and build housing. I’m delighted this is going to be affordable housing, and I’m looking forward to a development of housing in the town centre which is mixed and balanced so it’s not ghettoising anybody. I think it’s a step in the right direction.”

And Liberal Democrat councillor Brian Markham added: “Together with the things we’re seeing at the planning committee, these are all very welcome. It’s so important that we bring buildings back into use, bring people into the town centre and provide homes for the people who need them. Credit to the cabinet member and director for housing for the way they listen to people and their ideas. We must not lose sight of this when we move to unitary.”