Essex based Swan Housing Association has announced that it will be working with Settle and CHP as delivery partners for Curo and Swan’s strategic partnership with Homes England to deliver more affordable housing in the South East.
The firms will work together to provide both new social, affordable rent and low-cost ownership tenures, providing much needed affordable housing in the area, whilst driving investment in traditional and modern construction methods, in turn creating jobs and skills.
In September, Curo & Swan were named as a Homes England strategic partner under the government’s affordable homes programme 2021-2026 and were awarded £160.4 million of funding to deliver 2,425 homes. This is the second time the joint venture has partnered with Homes England, having been granted £51.1 million in 2019 to build 1,067 new affordable homes by March 2024.
Geoff Pearce, Swan’s deputy chief executive said “At Swan working in partnership is central to our approach and we are delighted to be building on the success of our first strategic partnership with Curo by securing a second strategic partnership together, giving us access to over £160m of Affordable Homes funding to accelerate housing delivery and particularly modular housing delivery from Swan’s factories.
With Curo working in the South West and Swan in the South East, the partnership ensures that we are both making a difference in the regions in which we work. However, Swan always aims to be a brilliant local partner too, so we are excited to now have the opportunity to work with two leading RP’s in the South East – settle and Chelmer Housing Partnership – to deliver new homes under the Swan & Curo strategic partnership. Our respective teams will now work together to build a successful delivery partnership that will provide the high quality, affordable homes the communities in which we work need. ”
The new Homes England strategic partnership programme includes a focus on Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), with Swan using modular housing constructed in one of their local factories, which also provides skills and employment to the local area. The chosen delivery partners work in similar areas of the country; with CHP working in Essex and Suffolk, and Settle based in North Hertfordshire.
Mary Gibbons, CEO of CHP said “We are delighted to be working with Swan and Curo to deliver more affordable housing in Essex and Suffolk under their strategic partnership with Homes England. At CHP we already have an ambitious commitment to build hundreds of high-quality affordable homes to meet local housing needs. We have a track record of working successfully with a range of partners to deliver on this. We are excited to be a delivery partner for this vitally important programme, which will really accelerate housing delivery across our region.”
Gavin Cansfield, CEO of Settle said “We are delighted to be working with Swan and Curo as a delivery partner in this strategic partnership. Our commitment at settle is to work with partners to provide good quality homes and services that respond to the needs of our residents, along with investing in neighbourhoods and communities.
As a place-based housing association working across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and South Cambridgeshire, we are really pleased to be able to contribute our expertise and knowledge of the areas in which we work towards a successful partnership that will deliver many more of the affordable homes that are so needed across the South East, along with important investment across this area.”
In the South East demand for affordable housing continues to exceed supply. Social rent homes are usually 50-60% of market prices, while affordable rent sits at about 80% of the market rate. Many of the new homes funded through the strategic partnership with Homes England will be available through the affordable homeownership schemes, helping solve the shortage.
Image source- Swan Housing Association
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