Top 50 affordable developments revealed

Last year, when Inside Housing ran its first list of the top 50 UK affordable developments, which the Homes and Communities Agency was also pleased to endorse, we said we looked forward to similarly high standards in 2013. We were not disappointed.

We received entries from landlords and their partners from across the UK covering a total of 8,059 new homes. This is an increase of more than 2,000 on last year and demonstrates the positive impact that social landlords are having on the quality of homes and local economies around the British Isles.

We would like to thank all entrants for the time they took to prepare their entries. The criteria are demanding, and it is a credit to social landlords and their teams that so many were considered for the final top 50.

Praise is also due to this year’s judges, whose skills embrace the entire affordable housing development process, from turf to tenant. The judging team spent many hours poring over entries in preparation for the ultimate debate over who made the final cut. This was no easy task and there are many schemes which can be rightly proud of the homes they produced in 2013, but for which there was sadly no room in the top 50.

The final list is in alphabetical order - there is no best overall scheme, as we would likely still be debating now. The judges have, however, picked out projects which, it was felt, best embodied what makes fantastic regeneration, specialist, small, large and sustainable developments. We hope this inspires all developers of affordable and social housing in the UK to continue the great work in 2014 and beyond.

Martin Hilditch, acting editor, Inside Housing
Andy Rose, chief executive, Homes and Communities Agency