Meeting housing need
We will improve access to housing, supporting better life chances for residents.
By 2030 we will be:
- Building new homes. We will complete at least 500 new homes during the first two years of this plan.
- Regenerating neighbourhoods to meet the future needs of communities. In particular through progressing our regeneration of John Barker Place, Hitchin, and working directly or in partnership to invest in neighbourhoods in Letchworth.
- Growing our business by up to 30% through partnerships which enhance outcomes for residents and increase our financial resilience.
- Working in partnership with local authorities and other partners to understand and meet local housing need.
- Exploring the best use of existing homes to meet housing need, supporting residents to have homes that best meet their household requirements.
By 2030:
Delivered average of 200 new affordable homes per year
Progressed regeneration programmes
Grown our business by up to 30%
Partners confident in strong partnerships with us improving outcomes for residents
We start this plan having made significant progress in our work to meet housing need.
We nearly doubled the number of new affordable homes we deliver each year, from 97 completed at the end of 2019/20 to 212 homes during 2023/24.
We successfully completed our first regeneration programme at John Barker Place – one of our key commitments in our previous plan. We completed a new children’s play area at John Barker Place in summer 2020, and the first phase building at Kingfisher House in summer 2022, providing 37 homes and two commercial units. We also completed our first stock acquisition, through the transfer of 138 homes from L&Q in late 2021.
There is still much more for us to do. We will continue working to deliver ambitions around meeting housing need during this plan.
How are we confident that these are the right ambitions to focus on?
When housing associations like settle were formed, the intention was to create organisations better placed to leverage funding enabling investment in new and existing homes, and to supporting local communities. That need is stronger than ever.
Research published by the National Housing Federation in June 2023 highlighted that there are 8.5m people in England who can’t access the housing they need, and that in December 2022 there were nearly 125,200 children living in temporary accommodation - the highest number since 2006.
At the time of launching this plan, we expect a general election by the end of the year. We see strong calls from the National Housing Federation on behalf of the housing sector for the next government to deliver a long-term plan for housing, with emphasis on the benefits that will bring to individuals, communities and the economy as a whole.
Our own research at settle emphasises the importance of delivering these new homes. As part of developing our 2030 plan, we sent surveys to all settle residents to identify the priorities we should focus on. From over 200 responses, the fifth most important theme residents believe we should focus on is building new homes.
How will we know we’ve achieved these ambitions?
The nature of this investment means that we will have clear targets to meet and we will closely monitor progress against them.
New homes
We have a committed development pipeline for the next two years, with a target to deliver between 250 and 350 new affordable homes per year.
In common with all housing associations, we have been affected during recent years by changes in the external environment linked to the economy, political change and global instability. This has created challenges for us all as businesses, with rising costs impacting the funds we have available to support all aspects of our work.
We would expect to deliver an average of 200 new homes per year across the duration of this plan. We will set specific targets for 2026/27 onwards during the latter part of the 2025/26 financial year, ensuring that we can be confident of achieving these alongside our other commitments as a business.
Regeneration
John Barker Place Hitchin
- By 2030 we will have completed the second phase building and progressed further phases.
Campfield Way, Highover Road and Icknield Way, Letchworth
- In early 2024 we submitted a planning application to provide 147 new homes in Letchworth, through regeneration of homes at Campfield Way, Highover Road and Icknield Way. Our target by 2030 is for development of these new homes to also be well underway.
Pelican Way, Western Way and Orchard Way, Letchworth
- An early priority will be to communicate plans about investment in homes in this area and how this will join up with other proposed developments nearby, so that residents and members of the wider community are clear on the steps we will follow.
Partnerships
Throughout all that we do to meet housing need, we will provide clear, timely updates to keep residents and members of the wider community fully informed. We will review the needs of existing residents to make sure we understand how the housing we provide meets their requirements. We will provide routes for residents to provide feedback and be transparent about how we are acting on this.
As part of this, we will work with residents to ensure we have fully reviewed how we can encourage tenants to have homes that meet household requirements and have clear next steps on how we would progress this.
We know that our ability to deliver our ambitions for meeting housing need will rely on having strong stakeholder relationships in place. Our aim is to be a partner of choice. During the plan we will actively seek feedback from stakeholders to ensure we keep on track with building strong partnerships that provide additional homes, along with services that enable tenancies to be sustained and residents to build their lives.