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An innovative multi-million pound development project to provide 109 new homes and state-of-the-art community facilities in Oxford will be taken forward by GreenSquare, working with its joint venture partner Hab, as Hab Oakus.

Hab is the development company set up by Kevin McCloud, presenter of the long-running TV series Grand Designs.

Following a competitive tender process, Oxford City Council selected GreenSquare to develop the 109 new homes and two new community centres on three sites the Council owns - Westlands Drive and Dora Carr Close in Northway, and Barns Road in Cowley. The decision was confirmed after a meeting of the Council's City Executive Board on Wednesday night.

Most of the new homes are planned to be for low-cost rent or shared ownership, with a proportion for private sale. They will be a mix of 1-bed and 2-bed flats and 3-bed and 4-bed family houses.

The new community facility at Northway will be designed as a flexible space to meet the varied needs of everyone in the neighbourhood. It is planned that this will include a sports hall with enhanced changing facilities, helping to meet the requirements of the football leagues based there, educational resource and learning areas, and a community cafe next to a food-growing area.

The project will also see the relocation of furniture recycling store operated by the charity Emmaus from its current base at Westlands Drive to new premises with a highly-visible shop front on Barns Road. Emmaus offers homeless people a home, work, and the chance to rebuild their lives in a supportive environment.

Councillor Antonia Bance, Board Member for Regeneration and Community Development, says: “This is an exciting and high-profile project that meets our objectives. GreenSquare can deliver a high-level of affordable housing, new community facilities, and a new facilty for Emmaus.

“Emmaus are a brilliant local charity but they have been unable to deliver their true potential due to their location and poor-quality rental unit. However, this innovative project means that much needed affordable housing gets built in the city as well as community facilities for the residents and a new facility in a much better location for Emmaus.”

Kevin McCloud, says: “We're delighted to be working with Oxford City Council and GreenSquare on these three schemes. We are particularly excited about the opportunity to work on three different projects across the city – an intelligent approach to regeneration that reflects the vision of a forward-looking city with ambitious plans for its communities.

“Many of the initiatives that are key to successful, sustainable communities – car clubs, food collectives, sustainable infrastructure – can only be delivered when councils and communities work together to introduce change across and beyond the boundaries that define, and all too often separate, individual development sites."

GreenSquare incorporates Oxford Citizens Housing Association (OCHA), which is based at Barns Road, next door to one of the sites to be developed. Andrew Smith, OCHA director at GreenSquare, says: “This is obviously just the beginning and over the coming months we will, with our partners at Hab, be working closely with the Council, Northway Community Association, Emmaus, and other local residents in these neighbourhoods to develop and shape the plans for these sites and make sure what eventually gets built is as good as it gets. We are thrilled to have been selected and can't wait to get started!"

It is hoped that a period of public consultation will lead to a planning application towards the end of this year, with building works to start in 2012 and completion anticipated by early 2015. During the construction phase GreenSquare will offer a minimum of 12 new apprenticeships through its '4ward2work' programme.

GreenSquare and Hab have been working together since 2007 and the Oxford development project will be the latest to be informed by Hab Oakus’ fundamental principles – a strong sense of community, a belief in the importance of public space, respect for cyclists and pedestrians, and a commitment to sustainable lifestyles and outstanding contextual design.

Hab Oakus is soon to complete its 42 home development at The Triangle in Swindon and was selected by the Homes & Communities Agency last year to develop the former hospital site at Cashes Green in Stroud, Gloucestershire. Hab Oakus is committed to working only with the UK's best designers and has appointed leading architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris for the Oxford project.

[published online 11/3/11]