The 15 former police houses in Fairfield, adjacent to Hexham’s police station, have been sold to the Anvil Homes for an undisclosed fee.
The houses, which were built almost 100 years ago and originally served police officers and their families, have gone through various proposals, plans, and bids before eventually being sold for development.
For many years, the police houses were let out as social housing, but tenants were asked to leave over three years from 2015.
The PCC at the time, Vera Baird, planned to sell the houses to generate funds for the police, and by 2017, most of the tenants had left and the homes were boarded up, leaving them derelict ever since.
Read more:
Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner, Susan Dungworth, who listed the houses on the market in September 2024, said: “One of the first tasks, following my election, was to review the current estate of Northumbria Police. From this review, I determined that these properties were surplus to requirements and were put on the market.
“I am pleased to confirm the land has now been sold to Anvil Homes, who will be able to provide more information on their plans. Money from the sale will allow for investment in policing, and I will continue to closely monitor the Force’s estates strategy to ensure it provides value for money, brings improvements around sustainability, and supports efficient and effective policing.”
Hexham Mayor, Town and County Councillor, Derek Kennedy has said he is ‘really content’ that the houses have been sold to a developer ‘to make something of’ after ‘eight years of waste.’
“This has been a long campaign that I’ve been a part of to get those houses sold. They have sat idle and decaying for some eight years now, with garage doors hanging off and debris growing up the walls and into the guttering, and it looks a terrible state,” said Mayor Kennedy.
“We look forward to seeing exactly what Anvil Homes intends to do with them. I do hope there will be some social housing as part of the development, but we look forward to the planning application coming forward and trying to engage with the developer and taking it from there.”
