A COUPLE who have created hundreds of jobs through building scores of developments across the North are to create hundreds more through an expansion of their eco-friendly care homes.

Billy and Karon Morgan are opening a £3m care home in Stockton, which will be their 28th across the North-East and Lincolnshire.

The 63-bed Maple Residential Care Home, which will create 50 jobs, will be the first of seven eco-friendly care home developments throughout the UK, created through the couple’s Durham-based Whitton Care Group.

The home is being built by another of the Morgans’ companies, B&K Developments, which has been behind the construction of numerous North-East sites, including small business units in Meadowfield, County Durham.

The couple say it will be the most eco-friendly of its type in the North, a model that will be replicated by the company in future developments.

Mr Morgan, who wants to re-establish a presence in the care home sector after passing on the previous 27 homes he created, said: “We’re very excited by this new venture which will offer a new choice to residents and their families while setting new standards of care and construction.

“We aim to create a totally caring environment, both in terms of providing the highest levels of care for dementia sufferers and developing a property which meets the latest environmental standards.”

Building work is due to be completed in September, and the home will be the first in the North to use an Austrian construction block which makes buildings air tight and reduces the energy needed to maintain an optimum temperature.

Other eco features will include under-floor heating powered by an air-source heat pump, rain water harvesting from a flat roof for the toilets, laundry and external water supply, and solar water heating. Only timbers from sustainable sources are being used in the construction.

The venture, which has won planning permission from Stockton Borough Council, has secured backing from Yorkshire Bank’s Newcastle Financial Solutions Centre (FSC).

Martin Glaholm, Yorkshire Bank Newcastle FSC business partner, said: “We are delighted to be supporting this venture which will create an important facility for Stockton.”