Customers, carers and staff have been consulted at every stage of the properties design. The new homes, such as the one shown above, will enable people with learning disabilities or mental health needs to live as independently as possible.
Leeds City Council and the LiLAC Consortium are celebrating after scooping the coveted Public Private Finance award for Best Community / User Involvement in a Project.
The partner organisations are working together on an £80 million PFI project, which will deliver modern new homes for over 340 adults with learning disabilities or mental health needs who currently live in 13 hostels across the city. The new houses, bungalows and flats will enable people to live closer to their own communities in smaller, domestic settings where they will be supported to live as independently as possible. The aim of the national Awards is to promote best practice and recognise innovation and excellence. A panel of some of the most respected and experienced professionals from the public and private sectors judged the Best Community / User Involvement Award based on evidence of consultation with the customers and the local community, evidence that customers have shaped the contract and its design, and evidence that customers and local residents are pleased with the final development and use it.
The LiLAC Consortium comprises specialist housing provider Progress Care Housing Association; Nord Bank; local company Jack Lunn (Properties) Ltd and Gleeson Capital Solutions Ltd, part of M J Gleeson Group plc. Jack Lunn (Construction) Ltd is responsible for the design and build of the 73 properties which are spread across 41 sites throughout the Leeds Metropolitan District.
Speaking on behalf of the LiLAC Consortium, Graham Lunn, Chairman of Jack Lunn Group added: ‘We are absolutely delighted and honoured that the Independent Living Project has won this prestigious award. The hard work of the entire team has contributed to this success. We are proud to be working with Leeds City Council, and share its values of involving communities from the very outset of a development project’.