Blacklaw Road, Dunfermline – affordable housing
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Summary
85 affordable, sustainable and accessible homes for Fife Council
Blacklaw Road affordable housing brings a new lease of life to the site of a former primary school that was closed and demolished over 20 years ago.
Robertson Partnership Homes' key contribution to Fife Council’s affordable housebuilding programme continued with the construction of these high-quality, affordable and energy-efficient homes, with operational delivery carried out by Robertson Construction Eastern.
This development has been the fourth of seven projects that Robertson is contracted to deliver for the council, supporting the ambitious delivery of new homes across the region.
85
homes for social rent
16%
wheelchair accessible and amenity homes
4th project
of seven for Fife Council
High-quality design
The houses are designed as part of an attractive residential development that fits in positively to its local setting, with enhanced streets, footpaths, landscaping, tree planting and green spaces. A townhouse design has been included in the development to accommodate a home for larger families.
Delivering solutions to challenging site topography
We have made a series of improvements to the site to ensure that this development could happen.
- Scottish Water infrastructure upgrades: we carried out advance works to support development of the site, completing these on a tight schedule to minimize disruption to roads and recreational areas.
- Drainage installation: our team installed drainage over 5m deep, ensuring temporary support for safe connection to the existing network, based on site topography.
- Site preparation: significant earthworks were delivered, including moving significant quantities of spoil and constructing retaining structures to create level access and usable gardens.
- Service diversions: electrical and telecom services were relocated before construction, including moving a bus stop and creating a new site entrance for road access.
Maximising value for our customer
The works have been sequenced to be handed over to our customer and occupied in six separate phases. This creates a manageable handover schedule for the housing team and means that new tenants can move in more quickly, compared with handing over the whole development at one time.
A townhouse design was provided to deliver a cost-effective design solution for much-needed large family homes, working within a limited ground-floor footprint (47m2 from 59m2).
Sustainable construction to achieve low running costs
We have constructed the homes to highly energy efficient designs, to help Fife Council achieve their target of increasing their stock of high-quality housing.
All houses are fitted with sprinkler systems, recognising both Fife Council’s and The Scottish Government’s criteria for safety to be paramount in newly built properties.
Features will keep energy bills low for the residents, underlining the Council's commitment to the natural environment and the wellbeing of its communities.
The development has been designed to, and is targeting, Silver Standard aspects 1 and 2 (Scottish Government Building Standards), with solar panels helping the homes achieve an EPC rating of B.
Delivering lasting social impact
Working alongside Fife Council, we have delivered not only high-quality affordable homes, but lasting social value, to positively benefit the community we have been working in.
- £18.8m local spend (£18.5m with micro- and small-to-medium enterprises, MSMEs)
- 24 supply chain partners within 40 miles, prioritising our support of the local economy
- 45/45 Considerate Constructors’ Scheme score, and a CCS National Site Award
- 115 tones CO2 emissions saved through a green energy tariff and the use of biodiesel
- 1 FTE new job created for someone not in education or training
- 93% local people (FTE) employed on the contract
- 11 apprenticeships, totalling 589 apprenticeship weeks, helping those early in their career to develop
- 10 weeks work experience with Dunfermline High School & DWP Job Centre
- 420 hours supporting young people into work
- £14,106 donations to local charities
- 100 hours volunteering
