Timber frames are up on the former General Electric site. 72 of the 108 homes are social rent, and Orbit will use some to rehouse Brownsover tenants.

The first timber frames have been lifted into place at Projects Drive, the £26m affordable housing scheme on the former General Electric Power Conversion UK site in Rugby. The developer, Morro Partnerships, announced the milestone on 26 August.

The first homes are due to be handed over before the end of this year. The last of them are scheduled for late 2027.

That timetable matters well beyond the six-acre site itself, because of what is meant to happen next in Brownsover.

What is being built

The scheme is 108 homes, and none of them are for open-market sale. Morro’s announcement sets out the split:

  • 72 homes for social rent, the cheapest tenure there is
  • 36 homes for shared ownership
  • a mix of one and two-bedroom flats, one-bed maisonettes, and two, three and four-bedroom houses

Orbit, the housing association taking the homes on, says almost a third of the total will be one-bedroom homes for social rent. Its group chief executive, Phil Andrew, said that was deliberate, to “meet local need for quality new social housing that supports smaller households”.

The frames are made off site at Morro’s 9,000 square foot factory in Leicester, which the company says is engineered to turn out 300 to 400 units a year, then trucked to Rugby and assembled.

The Brownsover connection

Projects Drive is not a standalone scheme. Orbit has proposed redeveloping the estate around Hollowell Way in Brownsover, roughly half a mile north of the Projects Drive site, and the new homes are intended to give it somewhere to move existing tenants.

The West Midlands Combined Authority put it bluntly in its own announcement of the funding, saying the Hollowell Way estate “has been earmarked for demolition and redevelopment by Orbit” and that Projects Drive “offers an opportunity to rehouse some of Orbit’s existing customers”.

Mayor Richard Parker made the same point again last week, saying the high number of one-bedroom homes was “creating the vital space required to rehouse and support existing residents from the nearby Brownsover estate during its proposed regeneration”.

For anyone living on Hollowell Way, the honest position today is that the receiving end is being built and the departure end is not yet fixed. Orbit ran its consultation on the Hollowell Way proposals through a dedicated website, hollowellway.co.uk. That address did not resolve when we checked it on 30 August 2026, and neither Orbit nor Rugby Borough Council has published a submitted planning application or a demolition timetable for the estate. We could not confirm a current homes figure for the Hollowell Way scheme from a first-party source, so we are not publishing one.

Who is paying, and a figure that does not match

The headline cost is £26m, backed by Homes England and by the West Midlands Combined Authority.

The two published accounts of the WMCA’s own contribution differ. The combined authority’s release, published on 30 December 2025, says Mayor Richard Parker “is to invest £2.6m”. Morro’s release of 26 August 2026 describes the WMCA as having “invested £2.5 million”. Neither organisation has explained the £100,000 gap, and we have used the funder’s own figure of £2.6m above.

Stage Date
WMCA funding announced 30 December 2025
Timber frame assembly begins Announced 26 August 2026
First homes handed over End of 2026
Final homes handed over Late 2027

The 108 homes at Projects Drive, Rugby, by tenure Of 108 homes at Projects Drive in Rugby, 72 are for social rent and 36 are for shared ownership. None are for open-market sale. The total scheme cost is 26 million pounds, of which the West Midlands Combined Authority has put in 2.6 million pounds. First handovers are due at the end of 2026 and the final handovers in late 2027. Every one of the 108 homes is affordable. Two thirds are social rent. Projects Drive, Rugby. Tenure split as published by Morro Partnerships, 26 August 2026. 72 homes for social rent 36 shared ownership Bar width is proportional to the number of homes. Open-market sale: none. TOTAL SCHEME COST £26m WMCA CONTRIBUTION £2.6m FIRST HANDOVERS End of 2026 FINAL HANDOVERS Late 2027 SITE Former General Electric Power Conversion UK works, six acres Sources: Morro Partnerships, 26 August 2026; West Midlands Combined Authority, 30 December 2025. Graphic by Rugby Town News

What the MP said

John Slinger, the Labour MP for Rugby since July 2024, welcomed the milestone and tied it to the waiting list. He said the homes would be “delivered at speed that will allow people on housing waiting lists access to a real home”, and that he hoped the factory-built method “can be used more and more to bring real solutions to the housing needs of Rugby residents”.

What it means for you

If you are on Rugby Borough Council’s housing register, this is 72 social rent homes arriving in your town, the first of them within about four months. Allocation is not automatic and Orbit has said part of the point is rehousing Hollowell Way tenants, so the number reaching the general register will be smaller than 72. Keep your register details current now rather than when the handovers start.

If you live on or near Hollowell Way, nothing has formally been decided. What is on the record is that two funders and the developer all describe your estate as proposed for redevelopment, and that the homes intended to rehouse you are already being framed. Ask Orbit directly for the timetable, and check Rugby Borough Council’s planning applications for anything lodged on the site.

If you live near the site, expect deliveries of large frame sections by road through the autumn. Our Rugby roadworks and travel page tracks closures as they are published.

One piece of context. Rugby Borough Council, which will determine any Hollowell Way application, is due to be replaced by a new unitary authority on 1 April 2028. The final Projects Drive handovers are scheduled for months before that.