New style council homes for Essex

Bell Phillips Architects’ designs for a new generation of council houses for an Essex local authority have been granted planning permission.

The 128 homes, which are mostly terraced with gable-end roofs, will be the first new homes built by Thurrock Council’s wholly-owned housing company, called Gloriana, set up last year with the aim of delivering 18,500 new homes in the borough by 2021.

A mix of two, three, and four-bedroom houses, they will be built on the 3.25ha site of the former St Chad’s secondary school, less than a mile away from Tilbury town centre.

Bell Phillips won a design competition for the scheme at the end of 2013 and Gloriana plans to offer the properties for affordable rent with the option of subsequently selling the properties to tenants at full market rates.

Planning officers recommended the scheme for approval, subject to the conclusion of a Section 106 planning obligation agreement with Gloriana.

Last month, Bell Phillips won permission for a 25-home elderly-living development in South Ockendon in Thurrock.