Highwood hands over 60-bed Extra Care scheme in Chichester to Housing 21

Highwood has handed over its long-awaited retirement and assisted living development in the Sussex village of Westergate, to leading housing and care partner, Housing 21.

Named Monaveen after the Queen’s former racehorse that made its first winning appearance at nearby Fontwell Park in October 1949, the new facility will comprise 60 one and two-bedroom apartments for rent and shared ownership. An Extra Care unit forms part of a Section 106 housing provision that applies to the development.

Despite the restrictions imposed by the Covid pandemic and, thanks to the superb efforts of the project team, Highwood’s programme was only minimally affected allowing the development to be handed over to an agreed timetable.

‘When construction began on the project in late 2019 with a 78-week construction programme, we could never have foreseen what would lie ahead,’ revealed Steve Matthews, Managing Director of Highwood. ‘Just a few months into the build programme, the Westergate scheme and all other sites were forced to shut down due to the impacts of the pandemic.

‘We worked with the supply chain to agree and improve working practices to ensure compliance with the new guidelines and then reopened the site with all necessary safety measures in place to protect our workforce and supply chain. Despite the restrictions and as a direct result of the superb collaboration between the Highwood and Housing 21 project teams, we were able to ensure our delivery commitment would be maintained. Their performance in such difficult circumstances is to be commended.’