Housing

The Setting

WESTFIELD Village is a thriving, private and popular community within a conservation area. It has been described as the “jewel in the crown” of The Guinness Partnership housing (TGP) and as a “private, quiet oasis within a city”. An enclosed, safe and nurturing community, it provides peace of mind for both its elderly residents as well as many younger families.

The properties are set back from well maintained and tree-lined verges with attractive memorial gardens, shrubberies, flower beds, a bowling green and striking post-First World War monument. Thomas H Mawson, designer of the village, felt that being surrounded by beautiful, colourful gardens would aid the rehabilitation of disabled ex-servicemen, and this is a philosophy that is upheld in the present day.

Westfield War Memorial Village signed a 70-year lease and Management Agreement with TGP in 2010 and the latter is now responsible for the management of the village, including its lettings. However, both the Westfield charity and TGP work closely together to ensure that the charity’s policies, criteria and philosophy are maintained.

Both the charity and TGP are bound, through their lease agreement, to provide quality housing for our beneficiaries. As part of a demonstration of this commitment to quality, in the seven-year period up to 2014, £960,000 had been spent on modernisation. In the ensuing seven years a further £1,169,000 will be spent.

Qualifying Criteria:

You are eligible to apply for housing on the Westfield War Memorial Village if you are in the following groups:

• Regular personnel who have served one year . This includes individuals currently serving as members of the Naval Service (including the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Fleet Auxiliary), Army or Royal Air Force.

• Reservists – volunteer reservists who have served 3 years. They comprise the Royal Naval Reserve, Royal Marine Reserve, The Army Reserve (formerly known as the Territorial Army) and the Royal Auxiliary Air Force: and Regular Reservists, who comprise the Royal Fleet Reserve, Army Regular Reserve and Royal Air Force Reserve.

• Veterans – who fulfil the service criteria above, whether as a Regular or as a Reservist.

Our Properties:

There are 113 properties on the village, 22 of which are privately owned and 91 properties available for rent.

Over the years houses have been modernised and the village extended to ensure a mixture of property sizes and styles to suit different housing needs:

3 bed bungalows 4
2 bed bungalows 4
3 bed houses 36
2 bed houses 11
1 bed ground floor flats 16
2 bed ground floor flats 2
1 bed first floor flats 10
2 bed first floor flats 8

Quite a few of the properties have disabled adaptations such as stair lifts, walk-in showers and grab rails. Furthermore, quite a few of the houses have downstairs toilet facilities, etc, and all meet the governments ‘decent home standard’.

The village is a private area with a resident-only parking scheme, including on-street parking and two designated car parking areas. It also has 25 garages for rent to Westfield residents.

How To Apply:

You can apply to be added to the waiting list for a property on Westfield by calling the Guinness Service Centre on 0303 123 1890.