Up, up and away at local scheme in Newton-le-Willows

Residents and guests will set scores of balloons free to mark the opening of a new housing scheme in Newton-le-Willows this week.

The balloon race will take place at the opening ceremony of the new William Sutton Homes housing development at Greenwood Drive in Newton-le-Willows, at 12 noon on Thursday April 3.

Guests and residents will attach an identification tag to the balloons before letting them go.

The tag encourages anyone who finds the balloons to get in touch with William Sutton Homes.

Then after a week the owner of the balloon which has travelled the furthest will win £25.

Carl Doolan, William Sutton Homes regional housing director, said: “At this time of year everyone is hoping for sunshine but we have out fingers crossed for a stiff breeze as well to carry the balloons as far as possible. I’ve heard of balloons making it all the way to France and it would be great if that happened here.”  

The site, which cost nearly £1,992,000 to develop, includes 22 three-bedroom houses for rent and shared ownership. Shared ownership schemes enable applicants to buy a share in a new home using savings and a mortgage and pay rent on the remainder – thereby helping people on lower incomes afford a property of their own.

Work on the development started in March last year and finished last week.

For more information please contact the William Sutton Homes Newton-le-Willows area office on 01925 225032.

Ends

Notes to Editors

William Sutton Homes was created last year, combining the hundred year heritage of William Sutton with the stock transfer roots of Ridgehill.  We now have a range of over 20,000 homes throughout England, from Plymouth to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which are managed through a national network of local offices.

• William Sutton Homes achieved 85% customer satisfaction levels in our most recent survey;
• Our residents are encouraged to have a real say in how their homes are managed through a variety of methods from board membership to mystery shopping exercises;
• We invested £19 million in our residents’ homes during the last year including kitchen, bathroom, heating and window replacement programmes and over 90% of our homes already meet the Government’s Decent Homes standard;  
• We are contributing to the Government’s agenda of increasing the number and range of affordable homes and currently have an ambitious plan to develop over 1,000 new properties through 2006/2008, and
• Our regeneration work is complemented by our community investment programme which saw us contribute almost £2 million to community projects and initiatives last year. 

William Sutton Homes is part of the Affinity Sutton Group, one of the largest independent providers of affordable housing in the country, with 50,000 homes across the country from Plymouth to Newcastle.  A business for social purpose, our surpluses are invested in our communities, our existing homes and our active new homes development programme.

For more information please contact Jonathan Goode at The Bridge Group at j.goode@bridge-group.co.uk or call 024 76 560440.