Lewis & Scotts Unique retirement community concept coming to Halstead!

We’re delighted to announce that we’ve started the process for bringing one of our unique affordable retirement neighbourhoods to our second site in Essex – the beautiful market town of Halstead.

The project is at an early stage, but we’ve now started our initial consultation with local people, including our Mount Hill site neighbours, as well as those in the area who might be interested in downsizing to one of our retirement bungalows, chalet-bungalows or maisonettes.

If you live in the Halstead area and wish to contribute your ideas and feedback – which we really do value, since these are retirement developments intended for Halstead people, and we need to know what is important to local people – then please do get in touch to share your thoughts with us.

But first we should explain what our Halstead retirement living neighbourhood is all about!

We founded Lewis & Scott because we discovered – while looking for suitable retirement properties for our own relatives – that there were too few affordable downsizing options that were retirement- suitable. In particular, it was difficult to find bungalows (or other accessible homes) that enabled retirees to stay close to their families and friends. We also felt that the properties that were available didn’t really do a great job of supporting physical and social needs at every stage of later life.

So, having been in the construction industry for decades, we decided to do something about it, and build retirement properties that supported better health and wellbeing, helped avoid social isolation, and would be affordable to those on average incomes.

We chose Tollesbury, Essex, as our first site, because we felt there was a significant lack of suitable affordable retirement properties in the area, and Halstead is our second for very similar reasons.

If you live in the Halstead area, are 60 or over, and have an income below the threshold (based on ONS data for average household incomes in the area), then you’re eligible to buy one of our unique retirement properties.

We’re intending to build 29 bungalows, chalet bungalows and maisonettes, arranged around a ‘social heart’ building, and set in landscaped grounds and wild-life friendly woodland.The ‘social heart’ is a key part of what makes our retirement developments unique - fostering a sense of community and avoiding social isolation are key elements for continued health and wellbeing later life.

All our retirement communities are designed to ensure that both residents, and the local flora and fauna, thrive. Our bungalows, chalet-bungalows and maisonettes represent an entirely new type of home. The designs maximise light and eliminate ‘dead space’, ensuring a spacious, bright feel, even in a compact footprint – which gives these affordable homes the feel of a property with a much higher price tag.

We’re not just focusing on improving wellbeing and comfort with what’s inside, outside the landscaped private and communal gardens are planted with carefully chosen species that suit the climate, as well as native shrubs and trees which improve biodiversity across the site. We also create our landscaping designs using therapeutic garden principles, for the most positive impact on health and happiness at every stage of later life.

“We’re delighted to be bringing our new type of retirement neighbourhood to Halstead, and we’ve already started getting some very positive feedback from residents,” says Lewis & Scott’s Managing Director Rob Scott. “Not everybody welcomes new developments in their area, which is understandable, but we hope that the good we can do – by fulfilling the needs of older people locally, and also improving biodiversity, creating natural habitats for native wildlife – will help demonstrate that our plans are designed to support the Halstead community with much-needed affordable retirement living options, while also enriching the area’s natural beauty and ecological value.”

To find out more about our forthcoming Halstead retirement living development – and the retirement bungalows, chalet-bungalows and maisonettes that will be available – please do get in touch, or if you prefer, click here to read our FAQs.