It is the first time Platform has built in the Forest of Dean, partnering with developer Aqua Construction who built the homes using modern methods and a combination of traditional brick and stone, complimenting the surrounding environment.

Upon finishing this development, Platform are soon to deliver more affordable housing elsewhere in the area in Coleford. Regional head of delivery for Platform Pawel Wiktor said: “The development looks great and we thank the parters at Aqua, Homes England and the local authority for their hard work in achieving completion of the homes. Bringing affordable housing to communities like the one here in Newent offer valuable ways of keeping families together and strengthening the area as a whole. Our teams and colleagues are looking forward to working with the community to support them now they have the security that comes with a place to call home. We’re proud to have delivered Chapel Gate for the Forest of Dean and hope to continue providing more homes for more people in the coming years.”

Construction began in 2022 but came to a halt when the previous building firm entered into financial difficulty, meaning a new partner, Aqua Construction, were appointed.

Craig King, construction manager at Aqua Construction, said: “We successfully completed an unfinished development after taking over from a previous contractor. Our team worked diligently to stabilise progress on the stalled site and restore confidence in the project and wider community.

We are proud to apply our expertise to ensure every home is delivered to the standard residents deserve. By working closely with the Platform team, we helped re‑establish trust in local housing delivery and ensured this site became a well‑integrated and responsibly managed part of the town.”

As a registered provider of social housing, Platform own over 50,000 homes across the Midlands and offer affordable housing and support to more than 120,000 customers.

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With Aqua’s MD working closely with the Duchy of Cornwall, the development is sensitive to the rural setting while addressing local housing demand.  Aqua Construction is working with the Employer’s Agent, Bespoke Construction Consultants, to ensure high design quality, sustainability, cost certainty and effective risk management during the build process.

The homes will incorporate low‑carbon design principles, biodiversity enhancements and imaginative public space design, with layouts that support walkability, green infrastructure and long‑term environmental resilience. The project reflects a collaborative approach to delivering high‑quality, sustainable housing for the St Weonards community.

The project will commence in April 2026 with a 60-week build programme.

The post Aqua Construction secures £6.4m land-led partnership to build new homes in Herefordshire appeared first on Aqua Construction Limited.

• Property & Construction
• Small Business (11-50 people)

Thanks to category sponsors Hewer FM and Clockwise as we head towards the Finalists being announced in April.

The competition is so strong with so many excellent companies in the mix. Good luck to all.

The post Shortlisted in the C2S Business Awards 2026 appeared first on Aqua Construction Limited.

The previous developer abandoned the site leaving a number of partially completed properties, including completion of the external brick envelopes, windows / doors, roof structure, coverings and PV solar panels.

The internal programme of works includes plumbing and electrical installations, dry lining / plastering, fitting of kitchens and bathrooms and decoration.

External works include the completion of the children’s play area, soft landscaping, stormwater attenuation pond, driveways and estate road.

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Rooftop Housing Group has completed the redevelopment of 1-4 Sweden Lane with the support of grant funding from Homes England. It previously housed four prefabricated bungalows imported from Sweden after the Second World War. These homes were part of a national effort to tackle Britain’s post-war housing shortage.

The site has now been redeveloped to provide eight new affordable homes – four for Social Rent and four for Shared Ownership – comprising of six two-bedroom houses and two two-bedroom bungalows designed to meet local housing need.

Built by Aqua Construction, the homes feature air source heat pumps for heating and hot water, and solar photovoltaic (PV) panels to reduce energy use and carbon emissions. Seven of the homes achieved the highest EPC energy Rating of A, with the remaining home achieving a high B. The new homes also take inspiration from the site’s original heritage with a timber-frame design, delivering modern, efficient and comfortable homes for local people.

Local residents welcome the redevelopment as a positive step toward meeting local housing demand and supporting the next generation of Beckford residents.

Mark Ramdehal, head of development at Rooftop Housing Group, said: “This project is a great example of how we can honour the past while meeting today’s housing needs. The new homes at Sweden Lane are high-quality, energy-efficient and designed for the future, providing local people with sustainable homes and enhancing the community.”

Derek Gibbs, construction director at Aqua Construction, said: “All eight properties at the Sweden Lane site near Beckford, Tewkesbury, were completed after a 10-month program, marking a significant milestone in the project partnership with the Rooftop Housing Group. The purpose of this development was to provide homes for shared ownership and social rent and meet the needs of the local community. In this latest successful collaboration with the Rooftop Housing Group, we played a central role in delivering this initiative, ensuring that the properties are well designed, accessible and affordable.”

The development reflects both companies’ ongoing vision to deliver sustainable, well-designed homes that enhance communities and providing long-term value for local communities and environment.

The post Rooftop & Aqua deliver eight new sustainable homes in Tewkesbury appeared first on Aqua Construction Limited.

All eight properties at the Sweden Lane site near Beckford, Tewkesbury, have now been completed after a 10-month program. This marks a significant milestone in the project developed in partnership with the Rooftop Housing Group.

The development was specifically designed to provide homes for shared ownership and social rent, meeting the needs of the local community. Rooftop Housing Group played a central role in delivering this initiative, ensuring that the properties are accessible and affordable.

Site Redevelopment

The project involved the demolition of four existing Swedish-style timber frame prefabricated bungalows. This cleared the way for the construction of eight modern houses, each featuring two or three bedrooms and contemporary design elements.

A strong emphasis was placed on sustainability throughout the build. The new homes are constructed using highly insulated timber-framed structures, which promote energy efficiency. In addition, the properties are equipped with solar panels and air source heat pumps, further reducing their environmental impact and supporting sustainable living.

Derek Gibbs, construction director at Aqua Construction: “All eight properties at the Sweden Lane site near Beckford, Tewkesbury, were completed after a 10-month program, marking a significant milestone in the project partnership with the Rooftop Housing Group. The purpose of this development was to provide homes for shared ownership and social rent, and meet the needs of the local community. In this latest successful collaboration with the Rooftop Housing Group, we played a central role in delivering this initiative, ensuring that the properties are well designed, accessible and affordable.”

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We are proud to share these awards with the Aqua Construction team who have all played their part in the company’s success. We won the Small Business category and were also honoured to then be awarded Business of the Year 2025 at the end of the evening! It not only celebrates the company but also recognises the team behind the scenes.

It was an amazing achievement and this accolade topped off a great evening with so many successful businesses in the room.

Jason Wasley, managing director, said: “These awards are a result of the immense contribution and success of the whole team, not just celebrating the company but also recognising the great people behind the scenes.

“Our company ethos is to strive to build excellence in all our developments whether social housing schemes or residential and local business recognition means a lot to us.”

Thanks to all the organisers, co-partners and sponsors including Hazlewoods, Willans and Trinity Bridge, who helped stage the event in the beautiful Cheltenham Town Hall, and indeed all the fabulous finalists who filled the room.

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• Project Team: Aqua Construction Ltd, Quattro Design Architects Ltd, Gloucester City Homes, O’Brien & Price (Stroud) Ltd, Cotswold Archaeology, Gloucester City Council
• Local Authority: Gloucestershire Building Control Partnership

Aqua Construction is proud to announce it has won a regional LABC award in the Best Small Social Housing category, West of England, in the 2025 LABC Building Excellence Awards. All regional winners across the many categories will now compete in the London Grand Final in January 2026.

For projects completed in 2024, the awards explore the best attributes of the building work as well as the relationship that existed between the project teams, individuals and local authority building control. The entry from Aqua explained how they achieved compliance, the collaboration between the site team and building control.  

Aqua Construction has established a good working relationship with Gloucestershire Building Control Partnership over several years across projects. The strength and depth of this relationship with Mark Stovell, principal building control surveyor, and his team contributed to the success on this challenging project.

Mark Stovell said: “As ever, it’s been a great pleasure working with Derek and the team at Aqua Construction. They are very professional and take a collaborative approach to every project. We’ve had the opportunity to work with Aqua on many projects over the last 15 years, and they always produce and build a high-quality product. Any unforeseen problems or issues are communicated and dealt with promptly and effectively. Aqua Construction would be a worthy winner of any recognition for their continued excellence.”

Aqua Construction’s LABC entry centred on the iconic Northgate Mansions in Gloucester, an impressive five-storey steel-framed building that comprise 25 apartments for social rent including retail space to the ground floor. With its distinctive metal standing seam cladding Northgate formed part of the £104 million landmark King’s Quarter development and the Gloucester city regeneration programme which also features the Forum building.

Jason Wasley, managing director at Aqua Construction, said: “It was fantastic to work on such a key building central to the regeneration of the city. Our close relationship with the Gloucester Building Control Partnership (GBCP), Gloucester City Homes (GCH), and other consultants and contractors were key to project progression and success.”

Michael Hill, executive director of customer experience at GCH, said: “It’s a proud moment for everyone involved in delivering Northgate Mansions and a real honour to see the project recognised by LABC. Truly affordable housing like this transforms lives – improving health and education outcomes and helping people build stable futures. These homes show how social housing can combine sustainability, design quality and community benefit right at the heart of the city whilst enhancing the wider King’s Quarter development.”

The development was completed on schedule and handed over to the client in March 2024 and marked Aqua Construction’s 22nd project in partnership with Gloucester City Homes

Northgate Street is one of the four original Roman streets in Gloucester and remains the truest of all four gate streets to its ancient form, although the streetscape has changed down the centuries.

During the 22 months build programme, Aqua worked with 45 contractors employing over 380 workers, equating to a staggering 58,000 person-hours. During the intensive seven-month brick and block laying phase 78,000 bricks and 30,000 concrete blocks were used. Aqua is proud that over 90% were either local labour or local suppliers to the project from across Gloucestershire, transforming the original 650sq.m site into a gross floor area of 1930 sq.metres.

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The previous developer abandoned the site leaving a number of partially completed properties, works to be undertaken include completion of the external brick envelopes, windows / doors, roof structure, coverings and PV solar panels.

The internal programme of works includes plumbing and electrical installations, dry lining / plastering, fitting of kitchens and bathrooms and decoration.

External works include the completion of the children’s play area, soft landscaping, stormwater attenuation pond, driveways and estate road.

The development is scheduled for completion in March 2026.

The post Housing development in Pinvin, Worcs nears completion appeared first on Aqua Construction Limited.

This marks the second successful collaboration between the Evesham-based housing association (Rooftop) and Aqua in the area, following the redevelopment of Bishops Drive, known as Pember Close. The latest Crown Close project regenerates a 1960s housing and garages site originally built for local Smith Industries workers into a new neighbourhood, to now offer 10 apartments and 18 houses in a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom homes for social rent and shared ownership.

Renamed Eversfield Close, the development was carefully designed to meet the needs of the local community and provides energy-efficient, affordable housing for the future. All homes are EPC A-rated and equipped with solar photovoltaics (PV) panels, energy-efficient heating systems, and EV charging points. Aqua partnered with architects, the Space Studio (Birmingham) on the project.

Mark Ramdehal, head of development at Rooftop Housing Group, said: “The development is about more than bricks and mortar – it’s about reinvestment in a community. Eversfield Close brings good-quality, sustainable homes to Bishop’s Cleeve, helping local people stay near family, schools and work. We’re incredibly proud of the regeneration and grateful to our partners for helping to make it happen.”

With sustainability in mind, the roof tiles, concrete, brick and blockwork arising from the demolition works was crushed, recycled and re-used on site to form temporary road surfaces and hard standings around the site.

Eversfield Close features a contemporary modern design, in keeping with the first Rooftop development, and blends a traditional build featuring facing brickwork and saw-tooth pitched roofs to reflect the former character of the area, finished with standing seam metal roofs. The houses boast larger than usual living areas for modern living.

Retained trees have been combined with new specimen trees and shrubs to create appealing landscaping that includes a communal seating area. A sustainable permeable paving drainage system has been incorporated into the parking and public pathways for rainwater run-off.

Jason Wasley, managing director at Aqua Construction, said: “This exciting redevelopment represents our second project for Rooftop who are specialists in delivering affordable housing schemes in South Worcestershire and North Gloucestershire. We are proud to have completed construction on schedule this Spring with the first phase already occupied.”

“We pride ourselves on transforming sites and creating sustainable communities, built to the highest standards, where people can be proud to live and work. We look forward to our next collaboration with Rooftop Housing Group.”

A handover ceremony took place on Thursday, 17th April to mark the completion of the development. Project partners were invited to attend, and they toured the new homes and saw first-hand the transformation of the site.

The development was made possible thanks to grant funding from Homes England and Tewkesbury Borough Council.

“Build-Zone is proud to be working alongside Aqua Construction and Rooftop Housing on projects, including Crown Close, Bishops Cleeve, continuing our history of working well together. As a specialist provider of 10 and 12-year Structural Warranties and Latent Defects Insurance, we offer expert building warranty insurance specifically designed for social housing and are pleased to work again on developments of such a high standard,” added Bob Stembridge, business development, at Build-Zone.

The Crown Close redevelopment is part of Rooftop’s wider regeneration masterplan in Bishop’s Cleeve, including previous developments in Bishops Close and Bishops Drive garage site. Each project reflects Rooftop’s long-term commitment to building safe, affordable homes that meet local needs

Photo – Crown Close 1: Laurence Aston,Head of New Developments., Aqua; Jason Wasley, Managing Director, Aqua; Daisy Halford, Rooftop Housing Group Board Member; Boris Worrall, Rooftop Housing Group Chief Executive; Mark Ramdehal, Head of Development, Rooftop; Esther Styan, Senior Development Officer, Rooftop; Derek Gibbs, Construction Director, Aqua; Ian Tinker, Site Manager, Aqua.

Photo – Crown Close 2 : Daisy Halford, Rooftop Housing Group Board Member; Esther Styan, Senior Development Officer, Rooftop; Jason Wasley, Managing Director, Aqua Construction.

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