Pictured above: (l-r) New tenant Jessica Frearson-Brown, Leicester City Council cabinet lead for housing Cllr Paul Westley, and local ward councillor Bill Shelton

BSP Consulting has played a pivotal role in a scheme which has led to the first new council homes in Leicester for more than 30 years.

Keys to the first nine of Leicester City Council's new council homes, built by Kier Partnership Homes with BSP Consulting as the structural and civil engineer for the project, have been handed to tenants.

The development in Calluna Close, off Heather Road, West Knighton, features seven two-bed/four-person homes, one four-bed/eight-person home and one four-bed/six-person home for a wheelchair-user.

Each is built to Code for Sustainable Homes level 4, and designed to be energy efficient and economical for tenants to heat.

The development is one of five sites across the city, which will create 146 new council homes when complete. Leicester City Council was allocated £7m of funding from the Homes and Communities Agency in 2009 to provide the homes via the last government's Challenge Fund initiative. The council funded approximately £8m towards the project.

BSP, which has offices in Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield, is also involved in two further projects under the Leicester scheme - to build 49 homes at Wycombe Road and 35 homes at Godstow Walk. The Wycombe Road scheme is due for completion at the end of April and the Godstow Walk development due to finish at the end of June.

"We are very pleased to have been involved in this scheme with Leicester City Council and Kier Partnership Homes to bring the first new council homes to Leicester for more than 30 years," said BSP Consulting managing director David Sumner.

"The Heather Road site was quite a challenging site, with steep slopes and a range of levels, but we are very pleased with the resulting scheme and hope the tenants will be happy in their new homes."