Ambitious plans to build up to 60 low-carbon homes as part of an eco-development along the River Loxley have been announced by the Sheffield based company, Sky-House.
They claim it will be an ‘exemplar scheme for the UK’, which will show people how we could live in the future, prioritising biodiversity and environmental impact.
David Cross, CEO of Sky-House said: “It’s a very complicated project and these won’t be like traditional homes. We can create very low carbon homes and we’re aiming for zero gas, full electric homes with air source heat pumps and solar panels.
“We expect this to be an exemplar scheme for the UK as an eco-development to show people how we could live in the future. We’re going to enhance the biodiversity of the site with open garden plots, meadows, wild flowers and hedges, set in woodland hedgerows.”
The project will cost up to £5M purely in clean-up costs due to 40 acres of the land being blighted by derelict buildings, which the community claim are full of asbestos, rusting and contamination.
Jodie Hawley, a member of the Friends of Loxley Valley’ Facebook group, said: “I think this is a great idea. I run around this area regularly and it is in desperate need of regeneration in the area.”
Another member of the community Facebook group, Richard Hakes, said: “Accepting the houses in return to ‘tidying’ up the valley could be okay, but 60 houses are still 60 houses with all the cars, sewage and more problems. It will be interesting to see how this develops.”
The single-storey houses will be worth around £40M in sales value , with the prices ranging from £150K to £1.5M.
Mr Cross said: “It’s currently an eyesore and being underutilised as a piece of land. It’s just derelict and creating pollution. So we are going to create a development where we plant thousands of trees, enhance a wooden and riverside walk.
“It will be largely invisible, provide much needed homes and provide space for jobs and for people to start businesses.
“The main thing we want to get across to the public is that we’re a Sheffield based business with Sheffield’s best interests at heart and we will continue to listen to everyone and we want to do something that the city can be proud of and show people how we could live in the future. We want people’s views.”
Sky-House hope to submit a planning application after the summer, having already got a Planning Performance Agreement (PPA) and will hopefully begin development mid 2025, taking roughly three to four years to complete.
In previous years, the council have refused planning permission on this land due to impact on the openness of the green belt, visual impact, height, scale, mass and density, all issues which Sky-House are attempting to tackle.
As well as the project in Loxley Valley, Sky-House also has many other sites across Sheffield, with new plots currently in development in Waverley and the Devonshire Quarter.
The Sheffield-based business currently has 500 plots in control, hoping to provide up to 100 to 150 homes per year across their sites and aiming to expand across other areas in the North West, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.
