What we’ve developed over the last year

Despite the last year being a challenging one for housebuilders, we are proud to have delivered 1,538 new homes through our development arm, Latimer, with 67% of these new homes for affordable tenures.

Several developments were under construction during the year, including affordable housing schemes in Leatherhead, Surrey, and Hertsmere, Hertfordshire. We also welcomed our first residents at a new development in Chichester, Sussex, where 37 homes have been built for social rent, in 2023.

We are transforming neglected pieces of land and breathing new life into historic locations, playing our part in preserving heritage. Our Twyford Abbey redevelopment in Ealing, London, is a case in point. The grade II listed manor house is at the heart of a development of almost 300 new homes - half of which will be affordable housing - and construction began in March 2024.

In York, our £83 million Cocoa Works and Cocoa Gardens redevelopment of the city’s former Rowntree factory and gardens continued to progress. The scheme will see almost 600 homes built, with around a third for affordable housing. Our construction work also brings investment into local communities while it’s underway, 82 apprenticeships were created as a result of our development projects over the year.

During the year we announced a partnership with Octopus Energy and The Hill Group to deliver the UK’s biggest ‘Zero Bills’ development - where residents will have no energy bills for at least five years. Some 89 homes are being built in Newport, Essex - 25 of which will be for affordable rent and shared ownership - with solar panels, high quality insulation, heat pumps, and home storage batteries.

We have also been building energy efficient homes in Cottered, East Hertfordshire, in line with the government’s Future Homes Standard expected to come into force in 2025. Once residents have moved into the seven homes for affordable rent, we will monitor the performance of the properties on things like temperature and humidity levels, ventilation and energy consumption, and report our findings to the government.

Sustainability is a key part of our new developments and during the year the Next Generation sustainability benchmark rated our development arm, Latimer, as the UK’s most sustainable not-for-profit housebuilder for the second year running. The ranking is based on social, economic and environmental performance and we also came third out of the country’s top 25 developers of new homes.

Regenerating communities

We invest in communities across the country, breathing new life into areas in need of rejuvenation. One of our largest regeneration schemes, a £1.8 billion programme to replace several ageing estates in Merton, London, with 2,800 homes, is coming to fruition. In January 2024 construction began on the Eastfields estate, where 800 of the new homes will be built. During the year, the government approved compulsory purchase orders that will enable the biggest estate regeneration scheme in Merton’s history to proceed as planned. The approval came after a public inquiry into the proposals earlier this year, which resulted in no objections.

Looking towards next year, we can be optimistic, with a strong development business and the skills to bring major projects to fruition - whether they are regenerating brownfield sites or creating large communities.