DIY SOS Returns For Big Build

Nick Knowles and the DIY SOS team is returning to BBC One with the Big Build. The series will see the team breathe life into a derelict street in East Manchester and create homes, as well as a support centre for war veterans. Some 62 homes across two streets will be transformed under the build.

In the first partnership of its kind, the project is bringing together Manchester City DIY SOS: Big Build; Manchester City Council; Walking With The Wounded and Haig Housing charities; and Adactus Housing Groups, in addition to time, expertise, materials and supplies donated to the project by volunteer contractors. Numerous suppliers, utilities and smaller specialist companies have also come forward to help on this biggest ever DIY SOS project.

The two one-hour programmes are due to air on BBC One on 14 and 21 October at 9pm. Viewers will see eight of the streets' empty homes refurbished to create two larger adapted residential homes for veterans and their families, one standard size property for a veteran and a veteran support and advice centre.

Street scene improvements will also provide disabled access parking, a planting scheme will be introduced, and each of the 62 properties on the street will receive a facelift with all the fronts rendered and receive new front doors and windows. The first group of veterans and their families will move in to newly renovated properties at the end of the build.

Presenter Nick Knowles says: "This time we are doing up five properties and building a support centre as well as doing up the front of two streets. It's enormous and certainly is one that will quite possibly break us. Thanks to the massive support of our partners and the building trade – which continues to amaze us – we might just do it. It's certainly for a fantastic cause as these veterans have given so much."

The aim of the project is to create a veterans' housing community within the existing community, while the advice centre will have a private space for therapy and counselling – run by Walking With The Wounded – and provide a space for community use. Training and employment opportunities are also being developed for veterans and existing residents which will continue the DIY SOS legacy.

www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre

(JP/CD)