Caddick’s Ashfield Mills later living scheme: design and delivery notes for engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Caddick Construction has started work on the £20.7m Ashfield Mills later living scheme in Idle, Bradford, delivering 75 retirement apartments with communal facilities, car parking and landscaped areas for Anchor, England’s largest not-for-profit housing and care provider for older people. The project, procured via the North East Procurement Organisation (NEPO) construction works framework, is scheduled for completion in 2027. Ashfield Mills follows Caddick’s delivery of the five-storey, 56,403 sq ft One City Park office block for Muse and Bradford City Council, consolidating its workload in the city.
Technical Brief
- Development is on Ashfield Road in Idle, constraining access, deliveries and potential traffic management arrangements.
- Anchor’s operational model implies higher acoustic, accessibility and thermal-comfort standards than typical general-needs apartments.
- Later-living use will drive specific fire strategy requirements: evacuation lifts, refuge points and enhanced compartmentation.
- Communal amenities and landscaped areas will require coordinated drainage design and SuDS detailing around shared external spaces.
- Car parking provision introduces hardstanding load and permeability considerations for subgrade preparation and surface water control.
- Appointment via the NEPO construction works framework points to standardised procurement, reporting and performance requirements.
- Previous delivery of the 56,403 sq ft, five-storey One City Park gives Caddick recent Bradford ground-condition experience.
- Experience in the later-living sector suggests early integration of assistive-technology, MEP and structural coordination in design.
Our Take
Caddick Construction’s £20.7m Ashfield Mills later living scheme in Bradford sits alongside its £18m east Manchester apartment block and £9.4m Rotherham industrial facility in our database, signalling that the Yorkshire & North East arm is building a balanced pipeline across residential, care and advanced manufacturing assets in northern England.
With completion of Ashfield Mills not due until 2027, Bradford City Council and partner Anchor are effectively locking in delivery capacity from Caddick Construction North East & Yorkshire at a time when the firm is also taking on major housing and industrial work, which may influence how future NEPO-procured schemes are phased in the region.
The recent appointment of a new managing director at Caddick Civil Engineering suggests the group is strengthening in-house civils capability, which could allow more groundworks and infrastructure elements on schemes like Ashfield Mills and One City Park in Bradford to be self-performed rather than subcontracted, tightening programme and cost control.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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