Community-led site will manufacture materials to help build eco homes

A SOCIAL enterprise has secured permission for ambitious £6m plans at Crofty on the Gower.

- IAN LEWIS

Down to Earth has received full planning approval for its most ambitious project to date an eye-catching manufacturing facility at Crofty Industrial Estate, by the Burry Inlet.

Know as Haus Hwb, it will be a flagship community-led manufacturing and training facility, allowing people to design and construct homes using timber and natural materials produced at the site.

Building on a 20-year track record of innovation, social impact, and environmental leadership, Haus Hwb will boost Down to Earth’s model of working with excluded and at-risk communities.

The industrial-scale buildings at Haus Hwb will be built by and for the community with Welsh timber and natural materials whilst embedding solar technologies.

Haus Hwb aims to be a regenerative hub for skills and wellbeing.

With an incredible sea view and the Wales Coast Path wrapping around it, bosses at Down to Earth say it's a spectacular location to showcase how communities and nature can be at the heart of future development in Wales.