Curo and Swan to boost delivery of new affordable housing with Homes England partnership

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 15:10:26 Z

West of England housing association Curo and Essex-based Swan have secured a new strategic partnership with Homes England to build more affordable homes.

Curo and Swan will receive £160.4 million funding from the new Affordable Homes Programme to deliver 2,425 homes over the next five years, in addition to their existing development pipelines.

The homes will be a mix of social/affordable rent and low-cost ownership tenures and will be delivered across the housing associations’ respective operating areas in South West and South East England.

This is the second time Curo and Swan have secured strategic partnership funding, after being granted £51.1 million in 2019 to build 1,067 new affordable homes by March 2024.

Aside from making possible much-needed new affordable homes, the government funding will also help drive investment in local economies and create jobs and skills.

In South West England, Curo works in partnership with housing associations Alliance Homes and Magna Housing to accelerate delivery of new affordable housing through their strategic partnership with Homes England.

Curo Chief Executive, Victor da Cunha, says: “I’m delighted that Curo and Swan have again been chosen as strategic partners of the government’s housing agency. Working with Swan as our joint Homes England strategic partner and our delivery partners in South West England, Alliance and Magna, has been very successful over the past few years and I’m sure it will continue to be a productive partnership in the future.

“Delivering another c. 2,500 homes with Homes England is an exciting prospect. The South West is in desperate need of additional social rent and low-cost homeownership housing at prices local people can genuinely afford. With this additional £160m investment, we will be able to boost output and further address the regional housing crisis.”

Swan Housing Association is one of the leading regenerating social landlords across Essex and East London. They recently acquired a second modular housing factory in Basildon, where they will precision engineer steel framed volumetric homes as part of their strategic partnership delivery.

John Synnuck, Swan CEO, says: “We are delighted that we now have this opportunity to continue to successfully work in partnership with Curo and deliver on Homes England’s ambitious affordable housing programme.

“We particularly welcome the focus in the new 5-year programme on the use of Modern Methods of Construction to deliver these much-needed affordable homes and we will use our second modular housing factory to build high quality new homes whilst creating new jobs, retraining staff from other sectors and supporting UK manufacturing to help the UK to build back better.”

Social rent homes are usually 50-60% of market prices, while affordable rent sits at about 80% of market rate. Many of the new homes funded by the strategic partnership grant will be available through the affordable homeownership schemes, helping more young people and families to get a foot on the housing ladder.

More affordable homes for West of England

Wed, 09 Oct 2019 10:48:51 Z

Image above: West of England Mayor, Tim Bowles (left) and Curo Chief Executive, Victor da Cunha (right) at Curo's Mulberry Park development in Bath

340 new affordable homes will be built in the West of England thanks to a commitment from local housing association Curo to invest £25m of government funding in the region.

A Strategic Partnership agreement between Homes England and Bath-based Curo has been agreed, with support from the West of England Combined Authority, which is working with partners to build more much-needed affordable homes, more quickly.

Curo and the West of England Combined Authority have been working together to enable a commitment that the funding will deliver homes in the West of England.

As part of this Strategic Partnership, secured in collaboration with Essex-based Swan Housing, Curo has agreed to earmark £25m to deliver more than 340 new affordable homes within the region over the next five years. The scheme has been made possible by a government grant from Homes England, the government body sponsored by The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), whose purpose is to accelerate the delivery of new homes.

This will begin with proposals to build up to 47 new affordable homes at Broadbury Road in Filwood, Bristol, and a planning application is currently being prepared.

Victor da Cunha, CEO of Curo, said: “We’re very pleased to be working with the West of England Combined Authority, Homes England and councils in our region to deliver these new homes. We work in an area which experiences acute housing affordability issues; building new housing will provide hundreds of local families with secure, long term homes.

“We very much welcome the government’s provision of grant funding through the Strategic Partnership scheme; it recognises Housing Associations’ key role in addressing the country’s housing crisis and allows us to accelerate our investment and build programme.”

Tim Bowles, West of England Mayor, said: “This partnership is responding to our need for more affordable homes, by committing to major development in our region.

“We need more homes for our residents to buy and rent. We need homes in the right places and at prices people can afford. The West of England Combined Authority is proud to support this partnership, and I am confident that it will deliver successful places where people will aspire to be.”

Curo News

Curo and Swan to boost delivery of new affordable housing with Homes England partnership

More affordable homes for West of England