29 January 2007 |Article by Kate James
A new development and commercial initiatives team has been created at Nene Housing to improve the delivery of regional housing development programmes with the Accent Group. Nene joined Accent in 2005 primarily to increase its ability to finance new housing schemes and to continue to maintain and invest in its existing housing stock.

Julian Knapp has been appointed to the new role of Development and Commercial Initiatives Director and will head up the new department. Julian, who joined Nene in 2005, will lead and deliver the growth of the Accent Group's housing stock by some 400 homes per year over the next 10 years in Nene's areas of operation including Peterborough, Northamptonshire Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Nottingham.

The development and commercial initiatives team will deliver programmes to build new homes for rent and shared ownership as well as expanding into new areas. The team will also deliver a number of key Accent initiatives, such as the Accent Youth training scheme, and will spearhead construction locally of the Accent concept home, a cutting edge home built using modern methods of construction. Thirty-six of the homes are being built at the Concept 36 development in Hampton, Peterborough.

Julian Knapp said: "The new department has combined different roles at Nene so we can deliver more new developments. By combining these roles we will be able to more effectively work with Accent and form new relationships with developers to enable us to continue to increase our housing stock and provide more homes for local residents."

by Kate James