Bath-based housing group Curo is to build nearly 2,500 homes over the next five years in partnership with an Essex-based housing association after securing funding under the government’s latest Affordable Homes Programme.
Curo and Swan will receive £160.4m to pay for 2,425 homes for social/affordable rent and low-cost ownership.
The properties will be built in Curo and Swan’s respective operating areas of South West and South East England and will be in addition to their existing development pipelines.
It is the second time Curo and Swan have secured strategic partnership funding – they were awarded £51.1m in 2019 to build 1,067 affordable homes by March 2024.
As well as creating much-needed new affordable homes, the funding will also help drive investment in local economies and create jobs and skills.
Curo already works in partnership with housing associations Alliance Homes and Magna Housing to accelerate the construction of new affordable housing through their strategic partnership with Homes England.
Social rent homes are usually 50-60% of market prices while affordable rents sit at about 80% of market rates.
Many of the homes funded by the strategic partnership grant will be available through affordable homeownership schemes, helping more young people and families to get a foot on the housing ladder.
Curo chief executive Victor da Cunha, pictured, said: “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 approximately 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 investment, we will be able to boost output and further address the regional housing crisis.”
Swan is one of the leading regenerating social landlords across Essex and East London and also a pioneer of modular housing construction having recently acquired a second factory in Basildon to precision engineer steel-framed volumetric homes as part of its strategic partnership delivery.
Swan CEO John Synnuck said: “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 five-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.”
Curo manages more than 13,000 homes across the region and builds hundreds of new ones a year. Its flagship 700-home Mulberry Park development, pictured top, on former MoD land on Bath’s outskirts includes community facilities and open spaces as well as a range of homes for sale and social rent.
