We have been ranked seventh nationally for the number of social rented homes we have developed during the last year.
A new survey has recognised us for having one of the largest development programmes for new build social rent compared to all new homes we have built.
The 316 social rented homes represented 28% of the total number of homes we developed during the last year, underlining our commitment to providing new affordable rented homes for people across the region.
To put this achievement into context, the top 50 biggest builders in the UK delivered an average of 17% of social rented homes compared to the rest of their tenure completions.
Over the past year, we have built 1,149 homes across the South West – more than 200 higher than last year – which ranks as the 11th highest number of homes built by a housing association, according to Inside Housing Top Biggest Builders 2022 list.
Almost 300 of those homes were built using modern methods of construction, which further demonstrates our focus on sustainability.
The 634 rental homes built by us last year – 318 for affordable rent and 316 for social rent - represents 55% of our total delivery, making us one of the country’s biggest developers of rental homes.
We were also ranked 16th for our development pipeline which will see 1,028 homes built during the current financial year, demonstrating our ongoing commitment to building new affordable homes across the South West.
We also delivered 317 shared ownership homes, 161 for outright sale and 37 for private rent over the past year. Owning close to 40,000 homes across the region, we are the 20th largest housing association in the UK.
Russell Baldwinson, our Executive Director of Development, said: “These figures clearly show our development programme is very much focused on the delivery of new affordable homes.
“Given our scale, we have a clear role to play in the delivery of new affordable housing across the South West.
“We are an ambitious organisation and to be recognised as one of the biggest builders of social housing in the country very much supports this ambition.
“We are very much focused on the delivery of new affordable housing for rent so to achieve top 10 status for social rent is fantastic given the level of demand for affordable housing in the South West where house prices in relation to incomes is one of the great disparities nationally.”
The survey revealed that the 50 largest housing associations across the United Kingdom completed just over 42,000 homes, which is a 4% increase on the previous year.
The figures represent a boost for the social housing sector considering the challenges of building homes in the last year; including rising costs, supply chain difficulties and labour shortages.
Russell Baldwinson added: “We recognise that the current external economic environment is impacting the affordability of housing across the South West; we have experienced a sustained period of high house price inflation, meaning that more families require access to good quality affordable housing.
“The greatest need in the South West is for low cost rented housing which underpins our focus on delivering new affordable homes for rent.
“We will continue to play a key role in helping address the shortage of affordable homes in the South West.”