An affordable housing scheme of over 100 properties featuring a £250,000 biodiversity investment is beginning to hand over in rural Cheshire.

Housing association Torus’ £22.4 million Latimer Fields development on the northern outskirts of Crewe sees 73 trees and 740m of hedgerow being planted.

An existing pond is being revitalised and a new one built along with the landscaping of open spaces and grassed areas to introduce more wildlife to the site. Links to established pathways and trails are also being made.

And in keeping with the environmentally-friendly focus, all properties have electric car charging ports and integrated solar panels with the electricity generated being used to power the homes with any surplus fed back to the National Grid.

Built by Breck on previously unmanaged agricultural pasture land, the affordable homes are part of Cheshire East Council’s Local Plan Strategy.

Torus’ scheme, which was supported by over £5m of Homes England grant, provides an array of options with different property and tenure types.

Of the 104 homes, 62 are for affordable rent with a mixture of one and two-bedroom apartments and two and three-bedroom houses.

There are 42 Shared Ownership homes on the site with two, three and four-bedroom houses built to a high specification with some properties still available through Torus Homes.

A government-backed scheme, Shared Ownership helps people get a foot on the property ladder by buying a share of a home with a smaller than usual deposit. Rent is paid on the remaining amount with the option to buy a greater stake in the home over time and own it outright.

In total, Torus is investing more than £730,000 in the development to support the local community as residents move in over the coming months.

This includes funding contributions for a new primary school and special educational needs, healthcare services and two play areas.

Managing Director at Torus Developments, Chris Bowen, said:

“Latimer Fields provides a variety of high-quality, much-needed affordable green properties in the area but also contributes financially to key infrastructure the wider community can benefit from such as health and education.

“The biodiversity investment has a host of fantastic ecological benefits giving homeowners direct access to nature and will also add character to the newbuild development.

“By following the government’s Biodiversity Net Gain rules, it also means there will be more nature on the land than before construction began and we are really committed to creating developments that benefit people and the environment.”

Breck Director, Andy Garnett, said:

“It is heart-warming to see handovers already taking place two years after we started on-site. Everybody deserves a home they can be proud of and this development will give that opportunity to people in the Crewe area.”

Latimer Fields is named after George Latimer who was the first custodian of Crewe’s Queens Park which was known as ‘The Jewel in the Crown’ after being dedicated to local people to mark Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887.