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Two housing associations added to £51m Homes England strategic partnership
Two housing associations have been added to a £51m Homes England strategic partnership deal to quicken the delivery of more than a thousand new homes across the South of England.
Dorset-based Magna Housing and Somerset-based Alliance Homes will work with fellow South West-based association Curo to meet its housebuilding target under the Homes England deal.
Curo, along with Essex-based Swan Housing Association, secured a £51.1m grant from Homes England early last year with a commitment to build 1,067 new affordable homes across the South West and South East by March 2024. It was part of a third wave of grant funding announced under the Homes England strategic partnership initiative.
The deals are part of a bid to help drive housebuilding as the government seeks to hit its overall target of 300,000 new homes a year.
Inside Housing previously revealed that housing associations would be allowed to add fellow providers to their partnerships.
Bath-based Curo is currently working on three affordable housing developments – two in Bristol and one in Weston-super-Mare – which it said are “part funded” by the Homes England grant. Another Bristol scheme is due to start onsite in January.
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The homes being built under the partnership are a mix of social rent, affordable rent and shared ownership.
Victor da Cunha, chief executive of Curo, said: “This is great news for people across our region who have been priced out of the housing market and who will benefit from the delivery of more new affordable homes, more quickly.”
Magna said it was looking to increase its delivery of homes through offsite production, which chimes with government efforts to boost modular. Last November, it was revealed that Homes England was investing £30m in modular specialist Ilke Homes.
Under bidding rules for the next round of strategic partnership funding, successful associations will have to commit to building at least 25% of their homes through modern methods of construction.
Selina White, chief executive of Magna, said: “We’re looking at innovative solutions to help us build more and we’ve already ordered 45 high-quality modular homes and more will be delivered through this strategic partnership with Homes England.”
Louise Swain, chief executive of Alliance, said the funding will help the landlord’s strategy of building 2,000 new homes over the next 10 years.
The homes under the Curo and Swan partnership are in addition to each associations’ current development plans.
