Northumberland's first dedicated veterans housing goes into Nordale House on Cowpen Hall Road: eight flats, £604,000 in grant and £355,653 from the council.

Northumberland’s first housing set aside for Armed Forces veterans will be created at Nordale House on Cowpen Hall Road in Blyth. The county council named the building on 17 September, four months after it confirmed the money.

The council-owned property, which it says will shortly become vacant, is to be converted into eight self-contained flats, with ground-floor accessibility.

The money

  • £604,000 from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust
  • £355,653 from Northumberland County Council
  • £959,653 total

Nordale House, Blyth: £604,000 from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust and £355,653 from Northumberland County Council, a total of £959,653, funding eight self-contained flats with ground-floor access, stays of 12 to 18 months, one of 11 UK projects sharing the £4.4m fund

The grant comes from the Trust’s Major Capital Grant route, as the council set out when it announced the funding on 26 May.

Northumberland is one of 11 projects sharing £4.4 million under the Veterans’ Capital Housing Fund, which the Trust announced on 21 May and runs on behalf of the Office for Veterans’ Affairs. The Trust describes the fund’s purpose as ending veteran homelessness by providing affordable and viable homes. The other named grant holders are in Northern Ireland, East Sussex, the South West, Scotland, London and Stroud. Northumberland is the only North East project named.

How the flats will work

The accommodation is temporary rather than permanent. The council says a stay will last 12 to 18 months, intended to prepare someone to move on to their own independent tenancy, with support while they are there.

The council’s Veterans Champion, Gordon Castle, said the council had “identified an ideal property for conversion” and that “in Northumberland our Veterans are never forgotten”.

Cowpen ward county councillor Rick Baker, who described himself as the father of an Armed Forces veteran, said seeing Cowpen chosen as the first place in the county for this type of accommodation was “humbling”.

What else the council has secured

The housing scheme is one of three Armed Forces funding awards the council has announced since the start of the year:

  • £604,000 for the Nordale House conversion
  • £986,000 of VALOUR funding, confirmed at the end of April, to create three new service hubs offering advice on housing, finance, health and employment for veterans, serving personnel and their families, plus an outreach service for people who cannot get to a hub
  • two dedicated case workers and a community coordinator already employed by the council

The council says support from the VALOUR programme will extend to residents of the new housing once it is finished.

What it means for you

If you are a veteran in Northumberland and you need help with housing, employment or wellbeing now, you do not have to wait for this building. The council points people to its Armed Forces support page, or the main switchboard on 0345 600 6400. That page gives armedforcesqueries@northumberland.gov.uk as the team’s email address, and names two case workers, both veterans themselves. The council signed the Armed Forces Covenant in 2012 and signed a new one in 2021.

The council has not published a start date or a completion date for the conversion, and the flats cannot be created until Nordale House is empty. We will report the timetable when it is published.

Neither the council nor the Trust has said how the eight flats will be allocated, or whether referrals will come through the council’s homelessness service. If you are at risk of losing your home in Northumberland, the council’s housing options team is the first point of contact, on the same switchboard number.

Sources