Larkfleet's Award for Building excellence
Larkfleet Homes has won the East Midlands LABC Building Excellence Award for Best Social or Affordable Housing Development for a development at The Drift, Harlaxton, near Grantham, which was built in partnership with Muir Group Housing Association.
The award was presented at a ceremony in the Village Hotel, Nottingham, in recognition of the high standards of design, construction and workmanship achieved by Larkfleet and Muir Group on the project.
Karl Hick, managing director of Larkfleet Group, commented: “We are delighted to receive this award, which recognises and celebrates the role of high quality design and construction in maintaining village communities such as Harlaxton.”
The development comprises a range of two and three bedroom houses and bungalows which have been reserved exclusively for local people with a direct connection to the village.
Larkfleet Homes - which is based in Bourne, near Peterborough - designed and built the 29 award winning homes at Harlaxton for Muir Group Housing Association, partially funded by the Homes and Community Agency.
Some of the homes have been made available for low-cost renting, Others are offered for ‘shared ownership’, allowing a family to buy part of the home and rent the rest from the housing association, thus giving them an affordable point of entry into the housing market.
Judges singled out the homes’ highly energy efficient design for particular praise. Each dwelling is fitted with air source heat pumps, which operate like a refrigerator in reverse, taking heat from the surrounding air to warm the home. The system provides low cost and environmentally-friendly heating and hot water even on cold winter days. The homes are also built with high standards of insulation and other features to reduce their ‘carbon footprint’.
David Robinson, development director at Muir Group Housing Association, said: “Muir Group is delighted to be working in partnership with Larkfleet to develop homes that meet the highest environmental standards, and we are delighted to win this award, which is well deserved.”