Swan confirms settle and CHP as delivery partners to boost delivery of new affordable housing
Essex based Swan HA has today announced that it will be working with settle and CHP as delivery partners under Curo & Swan’s strategic partnership with Homes England to build more affordable homes in the South East.
Swan will work with settle and CHP to deliver new social and affordable rent and low-cost ownership tenures providing much needed affordable homes in the South East and driving investment in both traditional and modular construction and creating jobs and skills.
Last month, Curo & Swan were named as one of Homes England’s strategic partners under the government’s Affordable Homes Programme 2021-26, and were awarded £160.4 million funding to deliver 2,425 homes.
This is the second time South West based housing association Curo and South East based Swan have secured strategic partnership funding through Homes England, after being granted £51.1 million in 2019 to build 1,067 new affordable homes by March 2024. However, this is the first time that Swan will work with delivery partners to deliver these homes.
Geoff Pearce, Swan’s Deputy Chief Executive commented:
“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 which will provide the high quality, affordable homes the communities in which we work need. ”
Homes England’s ambitious new strategic partnership programme includes a clear focus on the use of Modern Methods of Construction. Swan will use its second modular housing factory to build high quality steel modular new homes whilst creating new jobs, retraining staff from other sectors and supporting UK manufacturing to help the UK to build back better.
Swan’s chosen delivery partners work in similarly complimentary areas, with CHP working in Essex and Suffolk and settle based in North Hertfordshire. All share a common aim of delivering more affordable housing:
Gavin Cansfield, CEO, settle commented:
“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 market rate. Many of the new homes funded through the strategic partnership with Homes England will be available through the affordable homeownership schemes, helping more people find somewhere to feel at home.
Photograph Credit: Swan Housing Association
