Ipswich: New 'microhomes' for rough sleepers open

The microhomes in Ipswich have a sleeping area, kitchen, living room, shower and toilet.

Eight new "microhomes" for people sleeping rough that include a bed area, kitchen, living room, shower and toilet have opened in Ipswich.

Ipswich Borough Council said the units in Whitton had been designed in collaboration with homeless charities.

The new road for the homes is called Armitage Place - named after Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate.

Labour councillor Neil MacDonald said they would provide a place people could "call home".

The homes also include cutlery, plates and bed linen, as well as fitted white goods in the homes.

Occupants will receive books donated by Armitage, who was appointed Poet Laureate in 2019, taking over from Carol Ann Duffy.

Simon Armitage won the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry 2018

Mr MacDonald, the councillor in charge of housing, said the units were "good homes that will help those who were recently without one".

Each tenant will stay in a microhome for a maximum of two years.

Other roads near Armitage Place are named after other writers such as Shakespeare, Burns, Kipling and Byron.

At the other end of the social scale, Armitage, from Marsden in West Yorkshire, has recently interviewed the Prince of Wales for his BBC Radio Four series The Poet Laureate Has Gone To His Shed.