CASPAR comes to Leeds
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is planning to build its second development of City-centre Apartments for Single People at Affordable Rents – CASPAR – in Leeds this year. Thanks to close co-operation with Leeds City Council it is proceeding with details for an imaginative re-development of the North Street car park site to create 45 high quality flats for single people.
Councillor Jim McKenna, Chair of Planning Committee, said "The City Council is very pleased to be associated with this project, which it is supporting by the sale of the site on North Street. The Council has been encouraging City Centre living for a while with much success. However, to date the affordable sector has not been represented. I hope this development will give a lead and prove to be a turning point."
The first CASPAR development is currently being built in central Birmingham. As in Leeds, it is to a high density using imaginative architectural ideas.
“We believe that the CASPAR project will encourage other investors to produce decent rented homes in Leeds, helping those on middle incomes for whom house purchase is not practical at this time, and for whom city life has many attractions,” said Richard Best, Director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. “By helping people live nearer to their work, this development should cut traffic congestion and pollution. And the influx of single people choosing to live down town should enhance the social and cultural life of the City.”
Rents are expected to be about £100 per week. Although car parking will be available, there will be financial encouragement not to keep a car. Subject to planning permission, the project will involve a horseshoe crescent of architectural interest, with the use of innovative building techniques.
Architects: Levitt Bernstein Associates Ltd, London
Contractors: Kajima (UK) Engineering Ltd, Wakefield
Further details from CASPAR, c/o Joseph Rowntree Foundation, The Homestead, 40 Water End, YORK, Y030 6WP.
Other Press Releases of interest:
- First CASPAR Development comes
to Birmingham
18th January 1999 - CASPAR Project in Birmingham
10th June 1998
See our CASPAR section.
