44 affordable bungalows and houses up for grabs on new estate

Artist impressions of how some of the new homes could look in Fence Houses. Picture by Gentoo

Earlier this year, Gentoo Homes lodged proposals to develop parcels of land in the Fence Houses area.

This included 44 homes at sites off Avenue Vivian and Rose Avenue with a mix of bungalows and two and three-bedroom houses.

On Tuesday October 1, Sunderland City Council’s area development control sub-committee threw their support behind the plans.

View of site from Lambton Lane. Picture c/o Google

Gentoo says its affordable homes plan for the city will see £117million investment, and provide an additional 900 homes for affordable rent in Sunderland by 2024 via a mixture of new build and existing properties.

In addition, its commercial arm, Gentoo Homes, will build in excess of 200 new homes for sale each year and generate an annual profit in the region of £4million to subsidise the Group’s affordable homes plan.

When completed, the Fence Houses site will house nine bungalows, 21 two-bedroom homes and 14 three-bedroom homes.

Access for vehicles will be taken from Avenue Vivian with an extra entrance off Lambton Lane – alongside 58 parking spaces.

During construction, ‘exclusion zones’ will be put into place to protect trees with the development also providing sustainable drainage.

Coun Michael Dixon, speaking at the meeting at Sunderland Civic Centre, praised the plans.

He said: “I’m not a councillor for this ward but I used to cover this area in my job as a surveyor in years gone by and I very much welcome this development.

“I would also like to commend Gentoo for building bungalows which are probably one of the few [developers] that have done so since the 1980s, so well done on that.”

Gentoo Group manages more than 28,000 properties in Sunderland.

In May, housing bosses unveiled plans to spend more than £400million on improving existing stock and building new homes over the next five years.

The Fence Houses development is linked to a Homes England scheme aiming to boost the supply of affordable homes across the country.

According to a council report, Gentoo was successful in securing Homes England funding to help deliver the housing.

Under planning conditions, work is expected to start on site in coming years.