Supporting the communities in which we build
Please see below some key dates for the local community:
A huge thank you to all the local residents for your patients whilst we have carried out the necessary road works. All works have now been completed and all disruption is now complete.
Proud to be contributing £12.9m to the local community
As part of the section 106 agreement signed with Maldon District Council we will put over £5m towards education in the area, including about £1m for early years childcare, £2.2m for primary education and £2m for secondary education. Over £300,000 will go to local healthcare services while £4.4m will be put towards the South Maldon Relief Road, along with further contributions to other highway improvement projects, youth facilities, public transport and more.
We will also provide four junior football pitches, a sports pavilion and allotments as part of the Handley Gardens development, as well as land for a new school. Of the 606 new homes, 183 will be affordable.
Katie finds her dream home using Help to Buy
Mum Katie Sampson enjoyed a stress-free move to a brand new home that brings her closer to her workplace thanks to Taylor Wimpey and the Government-backed Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme.
Katie, 33, relocated to the Hamford Park development in Walton-on-the-Naze with her son Freddi, 11, in order to cut her commute. As a busy parent she was thankful to move into a home that was ready to live in from day one, and by using Help to Buy she was able to complete the purchase with just a 5% deposit.
Choosing the Belford housetype, which boasts two large bedrooms, French doors to a private rear garden and an open plan living room and kitchen, Katie was impressed with the build quality of the homes at Hamford Park along with the friendliness of the Sales Executives.
Katie, who moved into the Belford with Freddi in October 2018, said: “Living in the south east and particularly in Essex, house prices are higher than in other parts of the country but this is not reflected in our wages. Being a sole mortgage applicant, a nice property therefore becomes even harder to achieve.
"Help To Buy gave me an opportunity to buy a home above the normal loan-to-value ratio with a mortgage, therefore allowing me to afford a bigger, more desirable property. The five-year interest free period of the equity loan also gives my new home a good foundation to increase in value and become a profitable investment.
"I knew I wanted to purchase a new-build home because there’d be no work needed on it, so that really worked for me in terms of finance and convenience. I’d also heard about the high quality of Taylor Wimpey builds, so when work began on Hamford Park I was keen to reserve a plot. Thankfully once the purchasing process began, the Sales Executives were so helpful and were always on hand to help me with any questions I had - overall, purchasing with Taylor Wimpey has been a great experience.”
Children at Wentworth Primary School celebrate World Book Day donation from Taylor Wimpey
To mark World Book Day 2019, which took place on Thursday 7th March, we gave a £100 book voucher to Wentworth Primary School in Maldon. Now in its 22nd year, World Book Day is a celebration of reading and aims to encourage children and young adults to come together to explore the pleasure of books. Alongside the donation we also handed out copies of our children’s book, How We Build Your Home, featuring mascots Mille Mortar and Handy Andy.
Lucy Tylor, English Co-ordinator at Wentworth Primary School, said: “Reading is such an important life skill, therefore at Wentworth we encourage our children to read regularly for pleasure. We like to keep our book corners fresh and inspiring by adding new books. I am excited to use our voucher to buy a range of text types for our children to enjoy reading. Thank you Taylor Wimpey for the book voucher."
Speeding up home building with timber frame construction
We are speeding up the moving-in process for buyers across Essex and East London with a new strategy that has almost halved build time from 29 to 16 weeks. Currently used in Scotland, East Anglia and the West Country, timber frame construction has now been rolled out to Handley Gardens.
Unlike traditional brick-based building techniques, using timber frames lets our production team begin work on the internal structures at the same time as the external body, allowing the home as a whole to be built considerably more quickly than it would be using the traditional method of completing the outside of the house first.
At Handley Gardens this meant the new sales village - which features two show homes and two view homes - was built in record time, ready to welcome buyers for the first time on Saturday 23rd February 2019.
Using timber frames in housebuilding has benefits beyond speed. The method means homes are more energy-efficient from the offset as the production energy from tree to timber is low. In addition, the timber acts as a store for carbon and is a great insulator, meaning homes are much better at retaining heat.
Dean Wingfield, Senior Project Manager at Taylor Wimpey East London, said: “By using timber frames to build our homes, not only are our developments going up much more quickly than before but there’s also no compromise on build quality. We’ve seen the benefits of using this construction method in various other developments around the country and it’s very exciting that we’re now using it at Handley Gardens.”
Michael O’Leary, Sales and Marketing Director at Taylor Wimpey East London, said: “We’re so proud of Dean and his team for their hard work on the timber frame homes at Handley Gardens. We’re also incredibly proud of the production team - initially led by Pre-Construction Project Manager, Peter Monk - who put so much effort into ensuring the build process ran smoothly."
Dean is pictured below with Senior Site Manager Bill Low and Assistant Site Manager Clive Harris.
