Catalyst is now working on all four phases of the development that will deliver a total of 270 new affordable homes on the former NHS site of Littlemore Park in Oxford. Catalyst will deliver 102 homes in late 2021 through phase one of the development, and a further 168 homes over the subsequent three phases. The project is due to complete in summer 2023 and is being delivered in partnership with Oxford City Council. Onsite delivery of Littlemore Park will be by contractor, Hill Partnerships. The development, which is 100% affordable, brings much-needed homes for social rent and shared ownership to the city. The area will include landscaped open space, natural play equipment and public art. Catalyst purchased the site in 2016 from the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, and to reflect the site’s history and to support our healthcare workers, Catalyst will be giving NHS workers priority options to purchase a shared ownership home. The virtual launch event for the shared ownership homes is planned for January next year.   Located on Armstrong Road, the development has been named Newman Place, after Saint John Henry Newman, with the name of each block of new homes also reflecting a notable person with connection to Littlemore, including Atwater House, Underwood House and Allin House. Philip Jenkins, Group Development Director at Catalyst, said: ‘I’m delighted with what our team have achieved so far at Littlemore Park. We have made considerable progress on phase one of the project, despite the challenges that the pandemic has presented this year. Starting work on the remaining three phases marks a key milestone in delivering this significant number of new homes to Oxford, and we’re proud to reflect the area’s rich history in the building names. Once complete, the development will bring much-needed new homes to the city and for our dedicated and highly-valued NHS workers.’ Visit Catalyst New Homes for more information on the shared ownership homes available.

Housing association Network Homes has transformed part of a Lambeth estate into 177 new homes with landscaped communal spaces as well as a community room and resource centre facilities for the benefit of local residents. There are 41 homes for affordable rent and 40 rented apartments for Active Elderly residents being moved from Wynter House, an old sheltered block on the estate. Of the remaining homes, twenty are for shared ownership and 76 apartments for private sale. At up to 20 stories high, the £70million development provides a new landmark for Stockwell Park and includes three large commercial units. It has been built on the site of Thrayle House, an unmodernised former council owned block built in the 1970s. The old deck access building was in a poor state of repair with empty shops and a dark disused undercroft car park. The scheme, which received over £4.2 million of funding from the Greater London Authority (GLA), marks the final stages of the wider £200 million regeneration of the Stockwell Park Estate. This investment has gone towards building new homes, refurbishing and improving existing homes and upgrading community spaces on the estate. Active Elderly resident, Washington Hylton, moved over to the new development from Wynter House. He said: “I’m so grateful as my new home is a 100% improvement on my old place which didn’t suit my needs. My flat has more space and the presentation of the accommodation is nice and clean with better facilities.” David Gooch, Network Homes Executive Director for Development, commented: “I am very proud of our new development at Thrayle House which provides much needed high-quality modern homes. The positive feedback from the residents who have transferred from Wynter House, and some of the original tenants of the original Thrayle House who have moved back, has been great to hear and I wish them all well in their new homes.” Delroy Rankin, Executive Director at SW9 Community Housing, said: “The new development on Stockwell Road, Thrayle House, was transferred into the management of SW9 in July. Those residents that have lived on Stockwell Park for many years know that the estate has had its difficult and challenging times, and on occasion people did not want to live here. It is now a place of choice. The regeneration of the estate is an example of how to merge the new with the old whilst retaining the heart of the community. We are proud to be welcoming new people to the area as well as supplying wonderful new homes to our existing residents.”

Recently announced is a national framework agreement with Countryside & PFP to accelerate live and future projects through the delivery of mixed-tenure developments. Under the agreement, PFP will work together to combine expertise in creating high quality homes and places that give opportunities for communities to thrive. It is envisaged that up to 10,000 mixed tenure homes will be developed through the framework over a ten-year period across the UK. Opportunities for growth Countryside continues to see attractive opportunities for growth to deliver a mix of private for sale, PRS and affordable homes and this framework agreement will allow the homebuilder to develop large sites more quickly. The PFP strategy is to deliver more homes and more choice has seen us work with a number of partners including Homes England, and develop new delivery models. Working with Countryside will continue to boost capacity and aid strategic aim for increasing the delivery of affordable housing and mixed-tenure communities. Meeting people’s needs and aspirations Iain McPherson, Group Chief Executive, Countryside, said: “We are delighted to have formed a strategic relationship with Places for People, to deliver much-needed mixed-tenure housing. Our business has a proven track record and, together with our clear strategy for growth, we look forward to continuing to work with our partners as we focus on the delivery of high quality and sustainable mixed-tenure communities.” David Cowans, Group Chief Executive, Places for People, said: “For our future housing market to be successful, we need to provide more housing choice, improve quality and increase efficiency. Working with Countryside, a business that shares our commitment to creating well designed, sustainable communities, will help us deliver quality homes that provide choice and meet people’s needs and aspirations.”

A collaboration between Together Housing and Kensa Contracting, resulting in sustainable ground source heat pumps being retrofitted into over 770 homes in the North of England, has won the ‘Heat Pump City of the Year’ category at the international European Heat Pump Awards (EHPA). The government recently set out aspirations for 600,000 electrically-powered heat pumps per year to be installed into homes by 2028, as part of a 10-point plan for a ‘green industrial revolution’. This recent award win demonstrates that the UK is already leading the way on the European stage in reducing carbon emissions to meet its 2050 net-zero target, and is committed to tackling climate change ahead of the COP26 summit, which is being hosted in Glasgow in November 2021. The Heat Pump City of the Year (HPCY) award commends local regions which have put in place large scale exemplary energy-efficient heat pump projects. Together Housing and Kensa Contracting’s continuing programme of retrofit ground source heat pump installations, which has increased comfort levels and lowered heating costs for hundreds of residents across multiple sites in Yorkshire and Lancashire, fought off competition from projects in 110 cities across 27 countries around the world to take the title. Cutting carbon emissions and confronting fuel poverty Following a successful pilot scheme in 2018, Kensa Contracting and Together Housing have been on a mission to tackle fuel poverty and reduce the carbon footprint of the social landlord’s existing housing stock. By replacing a mixture of old gas boilers and inefficient electric storage heaters with Kensa’s highly efficient and low carbon ground source heat pumps over the last three years, more than 700 households have seen savings of up to 45% on their heating and hot water bills. A tenant fed back: “The new heating system is amazing; before it was so difficult to heat up more than one room in my home, but now I don’t have to worry about that.” Using the current SAP methodology, the lifetime carbon savings have been calculated as 44,858tCO2. As the grid further decarbonises with the increased levels of renewable capacity, the carbon impact of heating will be further reduced. The scheme was procured using the ProcurePlus framework, the first domestic ground source heat pump replacement program procured via a framework in this way. Together Housing has made a significant commitment to renewable heat they are leading the way in rolling out large scale deployment of renewable heat technology. Patrick Berry, Managing Director of Together Energy Services, commented: “We are delighted to receive this award from the European Heat Pump Association. This has been Together Housing’s first major commitment to heat pump technology and it will make a great difference to our tenants’ carbon impact. The project paves the way for a much wider application of heat pumps as we move away from fossil fuels in our properties.” David Broom, Commercial Director of Kensa Contracting, said: “Kensa Contracting has pioneered the use of ground source heat pumps in social housing, developing the capability to deliver increasingly ambitious market-leading projects; our work with Together Housing is the largest of its kind delivered to date. This scheme has been a true partnership of client and contractor working to achieve a shared goal of decarbonisation, reducing fuel poverty and providing affordable comfortable homes, through the adoption of British-manufactured renewable technology.” Shared ground loop array infrastructure provides a blueprint After the incumbent heating systems have been decommissioned in each individual property, they are replaced by a quiet and highly efficient Kensa Shoebox ground source heat pump. The Shoebox heat pumps are then linked to arrays of shared ground loop boreholes drilled under the green spaces and car parks adjacent to the tower blocks. The system design is very efficient, as the energy collected from the underlying rock is distributed at an ambient temperature to the individual heat pumps, which then upgrade this to a higher temperature at the point of use and only when required. This is an alternative system architecture to traditional district heating, where heat is generated in a central plant and then continually circulated through the system, which leads to significant heat losses and potential overheating in risers and communal areas. The use of distributed heat pumps also removes the need for a plant room, complex metering and billing arrangements, and restrictive energy supplier contracts, mimicking traditional gas network infrastructure. Ground source heat pump technology is vastly underused within the UK, despite the system efficiencies being some of the best of any other heating technology available, offering the lowest carbon output and running costs. Shared ground loop array schemes are eligible for government funding, and Kensa believes that this accessible and innovative system architecture is the key to increasing the national deployment of the technology.

After a comprehensive spending review earlier this week, the Chancellor confirmed that a new Help to Build scheme would be made available for the sector. The review included two significant announcements for the sector: £2.2 billion of new loan finance to support house builders, which includes delivering a new Help to Build scheme for custom and self builders, as well as funding for SME housebuilders and Modern Methods of Construction. £100 million of funding to support, among other things, the release of public sector land, including for serviced plots for self and custom builders. BuildStore, which is an Appointed Representative of Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB), is the leading finance partner for custom and self-build clients. MAB is the UK’s most recognised mortgage broker*, with over 1,400 mortgage advisers offering advice on a local level.  Here, Raymond Connor, CEO at BuildStore, offers his reaction to the news. He said: “Both MAB and BuildStore jointly welcome the government’s introduction of the new Help to Build scheme. We started working with MAB seven years ago specifically to offer products and solutions for people with aspirations to build their own homes. “This announcement has been a while in the making. At times, it’s felt as though self and custom build has been on the sidelines, but this news shows the strength of this government’s commitment to diversification in the housing sector. “Unfortunately, we turn away a large number of potential customers every month who are interested in self or custom build, but they simply don’t have the cash deposit required. Although we await further details and a formal timeline for the scheme, we hope it will make building your own home much more achievable.   “In terms of the wider market, the scheme will provide a major boost to the emerging custom build sector in the UK. SME developer are the lifeblood of this industry who day-to-day are the ones with the ability to divide up land into plots and sell on to the end consumer. We know that planning legislation is being strengthened all the time in this area to ensure local authorities offer serviced plots for people with a desire to custom build.”

Initiative to ensure registered providers don’t miss out on mountain of ‘ethical’ investment cash A group of more than 60 housing associations, lenders and investors have come together to launch a standard designed to help the housing sector harness the £2 trillion ethical investment market. The Sustainability Reporting Standard for Social Housing has been set up to ensure housing associations are able to prove their ethical credentials to institutions looking to invest in so-called ESG – Environmental, Social and Governance – assets. The market for ESG investments is thought to be worth £2 trillion in the UK, money which housing associations are increasingly being asked to justify their ethical credentials to access. The new standard, published for consultation today, has been pulled together with the support of 34 housing associations and 27 lenders and investors, including Lloyds, NatWest, LGIM and M&G. Housing associations backing the project include a number of the biggest in the sector, including Peabody, Clarion, Optivo, Sovereign, the Guinness Partnership, and Home Group. The standard has been drawn up by consultants Centrus and the Good Economy following a consultation in May this year. The social housing sector is thought to be the first to organise itself to create a standard of this kind to make ethical investing easier. If it is widely taken up, the standard should mean that housing associations will know what information any ESG investor will ask from them in order to ensure they meet ESG criteria. Housing associations currently use loans from banks and bonds raised on the capital markets to finance their activities, including homebuilding. Gareth Francis, director of treasury and corporate finance at the UK’s largest housing association, Clarion, said the initiative had the potential to allow housing associations to borrow more money at cheaper rates to finance the construction of new homes. He said: “Without a doubt more capital will be interested in housing associations if they can see how the sector is organised along ESG principles. This could be huge.” However, Francis warned the initiative would also reduce the risk housing associations could see current sources of funding dry up as ethical investing increasingly becomes the mainstream. “If you’re not engaged with this,” he said, “Over time you’re likely to find it more difficult to raise money.” Mark Davie, head of social housing at fund manager M&G said: “Social housing has always been seen as an ethical investment, because it’s housing. But that’s no longer good enough for ESG investors. Increasingly they’re answering more searching questions about what exactly your business does. “This initiative can make the process easier for both housing associations and investors,” he said. The Standard covers 48 criteria across ESG considerations such as affordability, fire safety and net zero carbon emissions, and will be overseen by a new Sustainability Reporting Standards Board, to be established in early 2021. Susan Hickey, a former chief financial officer at Peabody Trust, will oversee the setting up of the board. Lord Bob Kerslake, Chair of Peabody Trust, said: “This sector-wide reporting standard makes a significant contribution to the aim of increasing private capital flows into social housing, and will help a better and fairer economy and society to emerge after Covid-19.”