5 things we learned from our interview with Hyde and L&G on their for-profit affordable housing partnership

1. The two bosses have a lot in common

Mr Holdcroft and Mr Hulme were born within a few years of one another. They both grew up in Stoke-on-Trent and attended the same college (Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form). They even frequented the same local pub, called The Jester.

The two bosses only found out that they come from such a similar background last year, when discussions were already underway between L&G and Hyde on their housing joint venture. Now, they can’t stop talking about it. 

As we sit down to talk in L&G’s Farringdon office, Mr Hulme brings up their latest discovery: “I think we’ve established that Shaun’s dad used to be my nan’s milkman.”

2. Hyde likes having ‘skin in the game’ – but it doesn’t need to own homes

The structure of the funding means Hyde, as the housing association, gets around 75% of the receipts of an outright sell-off. The proceeds are funded by 50% of long-term debt funding from L&G and 50% equity funding, split 50/50 between L&G and Hyde; Hyde then reinvests around 25% of proceeds. (The value of the deal has not been disclosed publicly).

Hyde also retains some income from the homes and continues to manage them, including through its subsidiary, Pinnacle Group.

“I like the fact we’ve got skin in the game together,” says Mr Hulme. However, he adds, “We have deals where we don’t, and I think both work.”

“I’m of the view that we don’t need to own homes,” he continues. “Our job as a social housing charity is not to own as many homes as possible. It is to support people living in as many homes as possible. And that means, if we can deliver more homes… and do that by partnering and working with people using their money, that’s a better outcome.”

3. L&G wants to ‘mainstream’ new ways of investing in the sector

Mr Holdcroft, who joined L&G from Hertfordshire housing association Settle, accepts that there are reservations in some parts of the social housing sector over the idea of stock transfers to for-profit providers.

But he says there is a “need to face into… new ways of working, new ways of investing into the sector” to reduce the number of people on housing waiting lists and in temporary accommodation.

“It doesn’t have to be stigmatised, in the way that it perhaps is for some people in the sector, if there is a recognition that what we are all trying to do is to find the most effective ways possible to solve those problems,” he says.

“There’s a whole host of experience in the sector that can come to bear on… new ways of stewarding capital that would ensure that we do that safely, rather than allowing it to be something that happens on the fringes of the sector. That is the place where people can do things that can occur in the shadows. And I don’t see any reason for that. We should be finding ways to mainstream it.”

4. The organisations plan to learn from each other on sustainability

The way L&G thinks about sustainability, is “really nuanced versus how we do it” at Hyde, says Mr Hulme, “and we think sophisticated, and we’re going to learn from that, and vice versa”.

“The fact we’ve got a joint board, the fact that we’re 50/50, it lends itself to being a genuine partnership, and I think that gives us the best chance of learning and borrowing and stealing.”

Mr Holdcroft is of the same view. “I don’t think there is a separation in terms of priorities. What will be really interesting as we work through it is where do we find the points where there’s a difference of house view on how you go about doing something, or how you resolve an issue. But my instinct is… I don’t think there’s going to be a deadlock.”

5. The partnership is looking at development and retrofit

Inside Housing Living understands that a development deal under the new partnership is on the cards for later this year, with a third deal involving some of Hyde’s ‘seasoned’ stock set to follow in early 2027.

“All of that is an opportunity,” says Mr Hulme. “What we need is the market conditions to be stable, to give certainty, for us to be able to get the dynamics right, so it continues to work for both of us.

“It’s what works in the market conditions that we’re operating in, and most importantly, where’s the biggest need that we can solve,” says Mr Holdcroft.

On retrofitting older homes, he says: “I think we’re at risk of talking ourselves out of the solution by convincing ourselves that is something that’s entirely alien to us as a sector.

“It’s used to, every single day of the year, working in people’s homes and making those changes to them… It’s still fundamentally doing the same things that we do day in, day out with our customers.”

Read the full interview with Mr Hulme and Mr Holdcroft on Inside Housing Living.