First look inside 'homeless pods'

Exclusive tour of 'homeless pods' in Ashford

Transcript

00:00This was originally a car park and now it's going to be 23 social and affordable rented homes.

00:07So the reason that we do that it means that we're reusing sites that are either underutilized and

00:11we're not having to touch those greenfield sites and that brings that environmental ethos right

00:15into the level of what we do for the choice of sites that we then develop. We then do everything

00:20to be as most energy efficient as possible and to use the little amounts of energy as possible.

00:25Because they're social tenants as well their disposable income will be a lot lower so we can

00:29make the buildings that are the cheapest homes to run and to operate it can really have a big

00:33effect on their quality of life and their disposable income. These will last as long as

00:38any traditional normal build homes. We make sure that we go through a build off-site property

00:43assurance scheme that shows that they will last for two mortgage cycles and then a well-maintained

00:47building will last 100 years plus. This is one of the largest schemes we've done in such a tight

00:52site on a flood zone or such a difficult to build scheme. It's got 23 different apartments and

00:58they're spread out for a different the largest one is a three bed there's one bed and two beds

01:02in as well. It's taken you know just over 12 months to get to where we are here. Traditionally built

01:07this scheme could take you know if someone was to try and build this traditionally would take you

01:11know onwards and upwards of maybe 36 months. So we're looking to try and get the site schemed

01:16within this month so I believe that the council is trying to look and as soon as it's done and

01:20ready to be handed over we'll bring people in very very quickly so it'll be this side of the year so

01:24very excited to get people living in this building.