The Castleward Urban Village is transforming underused brownfield land into a thriving residential neighbourhood, and now more and more residents are calling the city centre home.

This major regeneration and housing project has delivered a new and attractive gateway to the city, and created an attractive, safe and healthy place to live. To date, 300 properties have been built including 73 affordable homes managed by The Riverside Group.

Affordable housing is a key element of the Castleward scheme and a priority for the council, which continues to work with both Derby Homes and private sector companies to provide new homes in the city.

Providing good quality homes at affordable prices creates more opportunities and means more people can have the choice to live in the city. 

To celebrate this continued progress, key Cabinet Members Cllr Nadine Peatfield and Cllr Shiraz Khan visited the some of the homes from Phase Three of the development along with Bruce Lister, Managing Director of Compendium Living and Ian Woodland, Regional Development Lead from Riverside.

Councillor Shiraz Khan, Cabinet Member for Housing, Property and Regulatory Services, said:

As an administration, our priorities are built around the people of Derby and we want to build a city that meets their needs.

A warm and safe home is something all residents should have access to. I’m delighted to see that this scheme is making sure affordable homes are available in our city. We can’t underestimate the work that housing associations such as Riverside do in making this possible for many.

With our housing targets increasing, it’s important that we continue to build on the good work at Castleward and continue to deliver the remaining phases.

Ian Woodland said: 

The Riverside Group is delighted to take ownership of these 27 beautiful apartments, and we are grateful for the funding from Homes England that helped provide these much-needed affordable new homes. Riverside is proud to work with all the partners in the Castleward redevelopment and to see the huge improvement to the city that it is making.

Looking ahead, demolition work is well underway for Phase Four at Castleward. This penultimate phase will see a further 112 homes created. In all, the project will deliver around 800 new homes, complemented by a tree lined boulevard, new primary school and retail space.

Councillor Nadine Peatfield, Cabinet Member for City Centre, Regeneration, Culture and Tourism, said: 

I’m delighted with the progress we are continuing to see at Castleward. As we continue to attract people to live in the city centre, we have to continue delivering a mix of high-quality housing that includes affordable homes.

A diverse population brings life and vibrancy to our streets, so it’s vital that we don’t price people out of city-centre living and instead create a community that is accessible for all.”

I’m now looking forward to seeing work progress on the final two phases of the scheme as we continue our journey to transform the city centre.

Bruce Lister, Managing Director of Compendium Living, added:

Castleward is a key project for Compendium Living, bringing an underused brownfield site back to life as a high quality, diverse residential area.  We are delighted to be working in partnership with Riverside and Derby City Council to transform it into a thriving place where people want to live, and it’s great to see people moving in and enjoying their new homes. Now that Phase 3 is successfully completed, we are looking forward to starting work on the next phase this summer.