£130million regeneration of Plymouth’s North Prospect reaches historic completion

A major milestone has been reached as Plymouth Community Homes (PCH) today celebrates the official completion of a 12-year long project to completely regenerate the North Prospect community in Plymouth.

The transformational £130m project, the largest regeneration scheme of its kind in the South West, began in 2012 and saw the demolition of almost 800 homes in a poor condition over the following years.

The North Prospect community now includes more than 1,100 high quality, energy-efficient new homes, offering a better variety of house types, sizes and tenures. The building works were so substantial that the construction of new homes was divided into five phases, which are now complete.

The project delivered 491 new homes made available for affordable and social rent, and 195 for purchase as shared ownership, creating overall 686 affordable homes– more than the 605 socially rented homes previously in the area. PCH also refurbished a further 300 social rented homes.

The regeneration has led to a reduction in crime in the area of 59%, and improved employment outcomes for local people.

To mark this historic milestone, PCH, the largest social housing landlord in Plymouth, today (30^th September) hosted a special celebration event at both The Beacon Community Hub in the heart of North Prospect followed by a VIP reception at the Home Park Club Argyle Lounge.

Throughout the day, invited guests joined PCH staff past and present and North Prospect residents along with all those involved with the regeneration from partner organisations, including Plymouth City Council, Homes England and local developers. Guests had the opportunity to reflect on the journey of transforming the community as they learned more about the history of North Prospect, and the impact of the regeneration.

The Beacon event featured a specially designed history exhibition, curated by Plymouth Community Homes with the help of residents and local history enthusiasts. This exhibition will stay open for the next week for local people to visit, showcasing historical images, memorabilia and touching memories shared by local people.

Attendees also had the chance to tour the area during the event on a specially arranged, PCH-customised Land Train, viewing some of the redevelopment and hearing a potted commentary about the development on route.

After the morning celebration event finished, the Land Train was made available to pupils from nearby school, Mayflower Community Academy, with around 60 primary school children visiting the specially curated history display at The Beacon for part of their history studies before taking tours on the Land Train during the afternoon.

The school visit was particularly poignant for students as Mayflower Community Academy itself was built as part of the regeneration project so the celebration offered the school a chance to celebrate its own history whilst engaging pupils with their local community.

The event at The Beacon was followed by a lunchtime VIP reception where guest speakers included former CEOs of Plymouth Community Homes, John Clark and Clive Turner, as well as current CEO Jonathan Cowie, alongside Leader of Plymouth City Council, Cllr Tudor Evans OBE, also a ward councillor for Ham ward which includes North Prospect, and Lord Mayor of Plymouth, Cllr Tina Tuohy, who is a North Prospect resident and a ward councillor for the area.

Over the years, the North Prospect regeneration scheme has been shortlisted for several industry awards, including Best Project at the RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence, and scooped the Best Regeneration Project award from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

Before the regeneration, the area formerly known as Swilly had become synonymous with social deprivation, antisocial behaviour and crime. Initial considerations for a regeneration project began almost 30 years ago, and the work has succeeded in improving the wellbeing of residents through the strategic use of architectural features, such as open spaces to help deter antisocial behaviour.

Recently completed surveys and research have recorded that total crime in North Prospect has dropped by 59% since the regeneration, while public order offences have reduced by 76%.

From the beginning of the project, PCH sought to rehouse as many residents back into the local area as possible. Efforts were made to safeguard the rights of families with roots in the area. During the final three phases of works, more than 70% of residents were able to move back into new homes in the neighbourhood.

Cllr Tudor Evans, Leader of Plymouth City Council and Ward Councillor for Ham, which includes North Prospect, said: “I've been the ward councillor here since 1988, so way before the regeneration started. When you think about what's been achieved, how many homes went and how many homes have been created, and the lives that have been transformed, that money has worked out for North Prospect.”

Long-standing North Prospect resident and Plymouth Lord Mayor Cllr Tina Tuohy, described the regeneration as “a tale of two cities.”

Lord Mayor Cllr Tina Tuohy explained: “After the First World War, the North Prospect area was completely different - it was originally designed as offering ‘homes for heroes’ but the area would require change in the future.  

“It’s wonderful to see that the regeneration has done just that. This is why a newly regenerated community with nice wide-open spaces and better homes is far more suitable for modern times.”

Andrew Lawrie, Head of Development at Plymouth Community Homes, said: “North Prospect was once a notorious area  with a reputation for antisocial behaviour. The properties in the area were built just after the First World War and suffered from a number of serious building defects, such as damp.

“The regeneration was a hugely ambitious project costing almost £130m and PCH would not have been able to deliver this without the vital grant funding we had from Homes England, in addition to help provided by Plymouth City Council.

“It’s too early to say what the lasting effect of the regeneration will be, but resident surveys already show that people feel safe in their homes, which is fantastic to see, alongside a tremendous drop in crime of 59% in the community.”

Nick Jackson, Executive Director of Business Services and Development at Plymouth Community Homes, said: “Today’s celebration marks a major milestone after many years of work to deliver the largest regeneration scheme of its kind in the South West region. We are delighted to see the final phase conclude this autumn, delivering more than 1,100 new homes for the community and for the city of Plymouth.

“This regeneration would not have been possible without the determination, passion and dedication of numerous staff both at PCH, and through our positive partnership working, especially with Plymouth City Council, and we are proud to be celebrating with our partners, stakeholders and suppliers today, as well as with our residents who live in North Prospect.”

Jonathan Cowie, Chief Executive at Plymouth Community Homes, said: “Having joined PCH a year ago, it is an honour to follow in the footsteps of my predecessors, John Clark and Clive Turner, who began this work back in 2009, and then drove forward the regeneration of such a pivotal transformation for the city of Plymouth.

“Achieving a project of this scale is the result of years of hard work from talented and committed people who wanted to improve the community for the people who live there – which is our vision at PCH, to create thriving communities where people want to live, and to change lives. I have little doubt that the North Prospect regeneration will lead the way in showing the possibilities of reimagining a community.”

Tina Tuohy: A North Prospect Story

Councillor Tina Tuohy currently serves as the Lord Mayor of Plymouth, and is a Labour Councillor for the Ham Ward, which includes North Prospect.

Tina is also a long-term resident of North Prospect, having moved to Plymouth in 1970, getting married and raising her family whilst living in the area.

After raising her family, Tina became a mature student at University of Exeter in 1987 and gained a PhD in archaeology.

Councillor Tuohy was once a governor at the old North Prospect Primary School, and led the North Prospect History Project with Plymouth Community Homes.

She has lived in North Prospect for 38 years and has seen the area expand and change throughout the period of regeneration, which she describes as “a tale of two cities.”

Tina has a wealth of knowledge about North Prospect, through her own lived experience as well as through connections made via her North Prospect History Project and her career as an archaeologist.

We spoke with Tina to learn more about her experiences of living in North Prospect for 40 years, and the stories that she has picked up about the area in four decades.

Tina said: “I moved into my first home in North Prospect in 1978 and lived there for around 38 years before the regeneration, then I moved into my current house in 2012.

“My first home was built in 1932, which was roughly the same time as the school was built. It was one of the later ones to be built, but it was classic in terms of what the house was like in the area: a big, three-bedroom house with a big garden, but come the end, I must say it was hard work to maintain.

“In 2012 when we were moved, I never forget when we were being shown the new house, and my husband looked out of the back window onto the neat little patio and said ‘thank goodness I will never need to cut that grass again’. I think a lot of other people felt like that too.

“By the time all the housing stock was transferred to from Plymouth City Council to Plymouth Community Homes in 2009, I was heavily involved in community work, and I was a resident representative in the early meetings that created PCH. I remember sitting around a table arguing about what the name was going to be, and helped to make the decision on the logo.

“Around the time of the transfer, my husband was away, and I was asked to become one of the first Board Members at PCH - but my husband had returned by then, so I had to say no as I didn’t have time to do it. I did offer to be a ‘North Prospect Representative’ as I knew that they were going to be regenerating the area, and that’s how it started for me.

“I was only in the meetings for a short while as I become a Councillor at Plymouth City Council in autumn 2009, and in 2010, I was put on the planning committee. The meetings could be quite lively and there were many opinions about North Prospect; this is why I started the history project.

“I asked PCH if I could start a small museum of memories where people could come and share their pictures and ideas, and they gave me a house on Cookworthy Road to allow me to do this, which is where I started the history project.

“We did the house up, and we decorated it to make it as close as we could to a 1920s living room; we dug up the garden to get a vegetable plot and built an Anderson shelter out the back. The people of North Prospect loved it, it was a place where they could get together and just be.

“The museum was extremely successful, and it lasted until the houses were knocked down. At this time I was given another house at Laurell Road which was the last house to go on that street, but unfortunately the museum didn’t move well, and people were moving on from North Prospect. There were lots of people turning up as curiosity rather than being part of the project.

“Back to the history. North Prospect was originally created as somewhere offering ‘homes for heroes’ after the First World War, as well as an area to rehouse people from Stonehouse and Devonport living in the slum areas that the Government was trying to clear, and they were all very happy to move to North Prospect at that time.

“After people had seen the homes and moved over, they used to call it ‘paradise at 12 shillings a week’.

“The ideas of the big gardens the houses had then was to create space for allotments, which would help them to grow vegetables to feed their families, and the houses were all bricks and render.

“The roads were very windy, but it was easy because there were no cars. Some dwellers coming in from Devonport couldn’t afford cars, and there weren’t very many cars in those days anyway, so all there was here was the milk float and the coal cart.

“I was told that in the 1920s & 1930s it was blissful; everyone moved in very happily and lived here for 12 shillings a week

“Things started going a bit difficult after the Second World War, when Plymouth was blitzed and people were desperate to be housed. People were housed in North Prospect, and they were all put there with no questioning about their backgrounds. The families that were feuding in Stonehouse for a number of years then found themselves living on the same street. I was told by one of the history group members that Saturday nights used to be total chaos.

“From then on, lots of problems developed as cars became more popular, and people got less interested in growing their own vegetables in their gardens as it was easier to buy them. The milk cart was then accompanied by a van with groceries and vegetables, so people didn’t think to bother with gardening as they could just buy the vegetables.

“I was there when the Queen visited North Prospect Primary School in 1999, and I was a school governor at the time; I met the Queen and I showed her around a few of the classrooms.

“There was an elderly councillor whose mother was at the opening of the school as a child and presented flowers to the Queen Mother. The councillor then presented the Queen with a photograph of her mother handing over the flowers to the Queen Mother, which was lovely.

“It’s wonderful to see that the homes that required change in the future have now been completely regenerated.

“This is why a newly regenerated community with nice wide-open spaces and better homes is far more suitable for modern times.

“North Prospect has become lived in again, and it is just so totally different”.

North Prospect fact file

• Almost 800 damp, poorly constructed homes were demolished and over 1,100 modern, energy-efficient new homes have been built as part of this £130million regeneration project
• 491 homes were made available for affordable rent and social rent, and 195 for shared ownership purchase, creating an overall of 686 affordable homes created – more than the 605 socially rented homes previously in the community
• A further 477 homes were developed for open market sale
• Around 300 social rented homes were fully refurbished to modern standards
• The work was undertaken over a 12 year-period, and divided into five phases
• Planning began as early as 30 years ago at Plymouth City Council, and formal work planned started 15 years ago when Plymouth Community Homes was formed in 2009, with the North Prospect regeneration forming one of the transfer commitments made
• PCH worked with Plymouth City Council and Homes England to complete the project over the following years
• 741 households were moved out of the area whilst works took place, and more than 70% of residents moved back into new homes in the area once the new homes were ready
• The regeneration has won 4 awards to date, and was nominated for 2 more
• The Beacon, the purpose-built, mixed-use community centre, sits at the heart of the community, creating 20 local jobs and hosting 12 regular community groups
• The regeneration has provided more space for open green spaces, while the spaces have been designed to deter antisocial behaviour
• Devon and Cornwall Police reported a significant drop of 27% in crime and antisocial behaviour between 2009 and 2018 in the early years of the regeneration
• New surveys have now found that total crime in North Prospect has dropped by 59% since the regeneration
• Public order offences in North Prospect have dropped by
• 76% Employment outcomes have improved in the area, with a drop of 28% in the number of people on low incomes and the number of people out of work down by 1.3%
• 95% of residents now say they feel safe in their new homes
• Phases 1 and 2 of the scheme completed in 2014 and 2017 respectively, with Phase 3 complete in February 2020, followed by Phase 5, Briarwood Heights, in 2022 and Phase 4 in 2024
• The developer for Phase 3, Kier Living (now Tilla) established the North Prospect Training Academy, which offered a six-week construction skills programme, including a mix of theory and learning