Success for R3 at Scottish Home Awards

R3 - a joint initiative between Cruden Homes (East) Ltd and Taylor Wimpey East Scotland - has scooped an award at this year’s Scottish Home Awards by winning the top accolade in the ‘Community Partnership of the Year’ category at the black-tie ceremony which took place at the Sheraton Hotel in Edinburgh on Thursday 17 June 2010.

R3 represents a joint initiative, where both leading housebuilders are working in partnership with the Raploch Urban Regeneration Company (RURC) to provide 900 new homes over an ambitious 10-year plan in the Raploch area of Stirling.

The Scottish Home Awards was founded in 2007 to recognise excellence in the Scottish housebuilding industry. It is an independent awards programme, run for the benefit of the housebuilding community with the objective of helping house builders and housing associations sell and market their properties more effectively. The awards are run in partnership with housebuilders, architects, housing associations, and boasts an esteemed panel of judges to create an annual celebration of the best new-build homes in Scotland.

Karen Armstrong sales and marketing director, Taylor Wimpey East Scotland, says: “We are absolutely delighted to have won the ‘Community Partnership of the Year Award’. R3 represents one of the most important regeneration projects in Scotland, where we have worked in partnership to provide a truly holistic approach, which aside from an extensive programme of building new and affordable homes, also embraces the social renewal of the area overall – from job creation to communicating with our key stakeholders. Our success in winning the ‘Community Partnership of the Year’ Award follows hard-on-the-heels of our exceptional achievements at the recent Homes for Scotland Quality Awards, and once again further demonstrates that our commitment to this approach is both being recognised and rewarded by our industry peers.”

This year’s Scottish Home Awards have gone from strength to strength since they began in 2007, with this year’s event attracting more than 500 senior industry representatives and a shortlist of entrants that include several of the UK’s leading housebuilders.

Hazel Davies, sales and marketing manager at Cruden Homes (East) Ltd, comments, “The Scottish Home Awards serve to promote the very best of the new-build property market from right across the sector including volume housebuilders, small independent housebuilders, housing associations, and architects. This year we faced some stiff competition in terms of the nominees, therefore we’re delighted to have succeeded in the ‘Community Partnership of the Year’ category and picked up our first Scottish Home Award for this development. However, this achievement is testament to the great efforts and commitment of the teams from Cruden Homes and Taylor Wimpey, and also the RURC, in driving our joint vision for R3 forward. In essence, we are effectively demonstrating that a strong partnership approach can reap success on every level.”

Situated off Raploch Road, the first phase of R3’s Stirling Bridge development comprises a substantial mix of properties by both developers, ranging from one, two and three-bedroom apartments to two, three and four bedroom homes.

The strategy for R3 has been to put the people of Raploch at the heart of the project, working with them to develop the social and environmental surroundings they want to live in for the long-term. This has been achieved by recognising from the outset that the local community is the expert on the area and including them in the decision making process via the RURC and Raploch Community Partnership.

As a long-term project, part of the regeneration of the area has been to provide employment opportunities for the community, which in turn has made a positive contribution to the local economy, through apprenticeships, training and job creation.

All properties by R3 are built to Eco-homes’ ‘very good’ standard and incorporate a number of energy saving features. Pushing forward the boundaries of environmental performance, energy use has been minimised through bio-climatic design, which optimises solar gain and day lighting, and reduces heat loss.

For further information on R3’s Stirling Bridge development, visit: taylorwimpey.co.uk