Adderstone has won the civils contract for Strata’s 248-home scheme at Spennymoor, the housebuilder’s first North East project. As Place North East reported, Adderstone is appointed as civils contractor.
A new builder entering the region
The detail that makes this worth covering is that it’s Strata’s first scheme in the North East.
Regional housing markets get dominated by a handful of builders who know the land, the councils and the supply chain. A new entrant changes that, and usually for the better. More builders competing for sites means landowners have options, and more builders competing for buyers means slightly better product.
The choice of a North East civils contractor for the groundworks matters too. Those contracts are where a lot of the local employment and supply chain spend on a housing site actually lands, and a national builder bringing its own contractor from elsewhere keeps far less of it in the area.
Spennymoor
Spennymoor is a County Durham town between Bishop Auckland and Durham City, with an industrial estate that has held up better than most in the old coalfield. It has manufacturing employment, which is more than many of its neighbours can say.
Two hundred and forty eight homes is a significant addition to a town that size. County Durham has been carrying a lot of development pressure, including the 155-acre Hare Hill solar farm allowed on appeal in August.
What to ask
The published detail doesn’t include the affordable proportion, the tenure, the value or the timeline.
With the North East allocated £445m for around 3,400 homes under the national social homes programme, the interesting question on any new scheme is whether the builder is engaging with that funding or building purely for open market sale. Those produce very different outcomes for a town like Spennymoor.
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