Elm Court, Hawick undergoes relaunch with green transformation
Our development Elm Court in Hawick has undergone a complete transformation since works formally began in July 2020. Bell Contracts were appointed to undertake extensive works following a competitive procurement exercise through Public Contracts Scotland. This project is a fresh start for Elm Court and a huge commitment from us to make sure this development meets the needs of current and future tenants within the town. The 30 original flats built in the 1990s have been refurbished and structurally altered into 21 general needs modern sustainable homes.
An important part of this refurbishment was consulting with our existing tenants. Their feedback helped us with the design process and potential improvements to the homes. Follow-up meetings also included discussions for planned re-housing of affected tenants and to talk through specific housing needs and how we could best support their move.
Following the consultation, the 21 ‘green’ homes were designed which would:
- Combine smaller, 1 bedroom/1person flats into larger, more flexible flats with improved space
- Improve thermal efficiency and replace the ageing electric storage heaters with modern ‘green’ air-source heat pumps
- Reduce noise transfer between flats
- Replace windows, doors, wiring, kitchens and bathrooms.
Nile Istephan, our Chief Executive said, “We’re really pleased the new flats are finally ready and our tenants will be moving in throughout August. Unfortunately, there have been extensive delays with this project due to the major UK-wide problem of getting homes connected to power supplies. This has been frustrating for everyone involved. We’d like to thank all neighbours for their patience during the protracted works, and especially our tenants who have had a long and difficult wait.
We hosted a well-attended open afternoon on Friday 5 August to showcase the great works that have taken place and I am confident our tenants will be very happy in these fully modernised, sustainable new homes.”
The entire project cost for this development was circa. £1.9m (Incl. VAT) with £400k grant from the Scottish Government’s Affordable Housing Supply Programme.
*Design Team:
Aitken Turnbull Architects
Wardell Armstrong (Structural & Civil Engineer)
Harley Haddow (Mechanical & Electrical)
Thomson Grey (Quantity Surveyor)
Contact: Mr Nile Istephan, Chief Executive, 01750 724021
Eildon Housing Association is a leading Scottish Housing and Care provider and is the main provider of new homes of any tenure in the Scottish Borders.
Eildon is a fast-growing organisation and is about to launch a new 5 Year Strategy with a commitment to create up to 800 new affordable homes, transform to be green organisation and decarbonise our housing stock, address a range of social care and housing needs shortfalls and continue to respond to the changing preferences and aspirations of our customers.
We are fully committed to a just transition to a net zero carbon economy, working in partnership with others, as we believe we can play a leadership role in these efforts, and in doing so help re-shape the South of Scotland economy and support genuinely inclusive growth for our region.
Eildon Housing – 50 years providing housing and care