Stoke-on-Trent City Council has named Sapphire – a consortium of construction, housing, facilities management, property development and architect professionals – to build apartments in the area over the next three years.

The villages will be created at three sites across the city for people over the age of 55 and will be fully-occupied by 2017. The villages will offer spacious apartments within a community setting, with facilities on site and conveniently located transport links.

Facilities include one-bed and two-bed self-contained apartments, communal lounges, restaurant facilities, a launderette, landscaped gardens, hair and beauty salons, gyms and a variety of social and activity events.

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The housing will help meet an identified need in the city and will be available for a range of people. It offers residents the opportunity to continue living independently with the same privacy they would have in any other kind of housing, but with access to other services and facilities that help them.

The retirement villages will be located at:

• Holdcroft Fields, Holdcroft Road, Abbey Hulton.

• The former Brookwood Home and Blurton Farm Depot, Consett Road, Blurton.

• The former Westcliffe Hospital, Turnhurst Road, Chell.

Sapphire has been selected to deliver the villages based on a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) procurement process which started in November 2011 with the issue of the Official Journal of the European Union notice. Sapphire was one of four bidders to be shortlisted in March 2012.

The firm will build, finance and operate the retirement villages over a 25-year period in partnership with the Council. The consortium comprises a number of firms which have experience in providing a range of housing projects countrywide. They are:

• Eric Wright Group

• Your Housing Group

• Kajima Partnerships Limited

• Seddon Construction.

As part of the negotiation process under the Mandate for Change agenda within the city, Sapphire will look to provide local employment opportunities, using local materials and companies.

(CD)