A Durham-based firm has secured a £56m contract to build affordable homes in Middlesbrough, its biggest ever contract.
Esh Construction, which also has an office in Leeds, landed work for the Grove Hill project with Thirteen Housing Group.
It will see 296 affordable two-, three- and four-bedroom houses and bungalows built to replace homes demolished more than a decade ago. The first units are expected to be available in the fall of 2025.
The scheme is part-funded through a strategic partnership between Thirteen and Homes England, as well as a £2.8m grant from the government’s Brownfield Housing Fund.
This year, Esh Construction has already announced two more plans in Middlesbrough for Tretze, worth £42m.
Esh chief executive Andy Radcliffe said: “This scheme represents the largest affordable housing development we have achieved. As such, it is a truly proud moment to be alongside our client Tretze, and representatives of all the partners who helped make this development happen, to officially mark the start on site.”
Radcliffe said the three contracts mean the company will deliver more than 540 affordable homes in Middlesbrough with Thirteen.
“These schemes are part of ambitious plans to regenerate areas of the city and through a range of initiatives of social and economic value we will aim to create a lasting legacy in the local community,” he said.
Tees Valley Combined Authority is responsible for approving money from the Brownfield Housing Fund.
Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said: “Bringing new life to blighted sites and creating places where families can settle and communities can thrive is exactly what this money is going towards.”
Formed in 1999 from the merger of Dunelm Castle Homes, Deerness Fencing, Sones Landscaping and Lumsden & Carroll Civil Engineering, Esh bills itself as “one of the largest privately owned construction companies in the North of ‘England”. It carries out commercial building and civil engineering work, as well as housing work.
In its latest published accounts, for the year to 31 December 2021, it had a turnover of £230.6m and posted a pre-tax profit of £2.49m.
