Sheffield housebuilder backs The Star for trusted, independent news that 'creates communities'

David Cross is seeing success with his terraced Sky-Houses after developing the idea more than a decade ago.

Relatively cheap but featuring outdoor space on four levels - patio, terrace, balcony and roof garden - the first ‘community’ of 44 at Waverley in Rotherham have all sold. A second phase is planned and there are set to be 35 within the firm’s Oughtibridge Mill redevelopment and 57 on another plot in the city centre. In total, 158 are planned across four sites.

Mr Cross has also shown his belief in community by paying for hundreds of copies of The Star that were delivered to vulnerable people during lockdown. He is also a digital subscriber.

He believes the newspaper’s trusted, impartial, local news has never been more important.

He said: “I’m a big fan and always read The Star. But journalism is in an awful place because of the tech giants and social media. I think it is scary. People are not really aware of the fake news around Brexit, Russia and Trump - it’s in danger of splitting the world.

“No one seems to quite understand how devastating it has been. What has happened with Brexit is very sad. We might bounce back from Covid, but Brexit will be much worse.

“Everyone should do what they can to support trusted journalism. Local news creates communities. The Star has always been good to us with supportive articles. Now it is going through difficult times and at times like these everyone has got to dig deep.”

Mr Cross said they had also brought forward spending to help the wider economy during the pandemic. The company also works with small firms of sub-contractors.

Sky-House Co is preparing to move into a new headquarters at Centenary Works on Little London Road, Woodseats, and is building an in-house team of quantity surveyors, project managers and site managers. Sky-House has been trademarked. It has also led to spin-offs.

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