This explains briefly how we get a house from the drawing board to reality.
Our development process starts with a piece of land or an unused building. We carry out desktop studies to see if the scheme is viable before appointing the design team. We work closely with Torfaen’s Housing Strategy team to see what housing is needed and to see if they will support the scheme with a housing grant from the Welsh Government. We also check with Community Housing to see if they can support any new homes in the proposed location.
Any new scheme we build has to comply with Welsh Government’s Development Quality Requirements (DQR) and also our standard specification and set of employer’s requirements. The teams in property review these standard documents every February to fit in to the Welsh Government grant cycle. The review makes sure that all new schemes are designed in accordance with the latest standard specification. It also lets us check the components and finishes are acceptable.
Before we start building we enter the pre contract design phase. This includes consultations with staff from community housing, assets, maintenance, finance etc. to make sure people’s expert knowledge is taken into account. Any suggested changes at this time have to be tempered against planning requirements, DQR and costs.
Once the scheme is in contract and building starts, minimal changes should be required to make sure the desired quality, time and cost can be achieved. Health and safety is paramount on construction sites, with restricted access to visitors.